Fate Revelation Online
by daniel-gudman
Summary: Ilya likes to play video games, and in the time she has remaining, Shirou is more than willing to play the new VR game with her. But when they are trapped inside the game, [Sword Art Online], they determine something even more distressing: Kayaba Akihiko is definitely a Magus.
1. 1:1 Kayaba's Welcome

This is a crossover fanfiction of "Fate/Stay Night" by Kinoko Nasu and "Sword Art Online" by Kawahara Reki that sprouted from two seeds:

One was simply, a straight-forward and easy setting to explain Emiya Shirou getting trapped inside SAO.

Two, was making Kayaba a villain with a magnificent "Evil Plan."

I hope you will enjoy reading about the way these two seeds twined together and grew.

**Summary:**

Ilya likes to play video games, and in the time she has remaining, Shirou is more than willing to play the new VR game with her. But when they are trapped inside the game, [Sword Art Online], they determine something even more distressing: Kayaba Akihiko is definitely a Magus.

I I I

**Link: Start**

I I I

"Come on come on come on!" Somewhere in there, the words of Ilyasivel von Einzbern crossed a line from "demanding" to "whining", as she impatiently tugged him along. He hadn't even finished saying "I'm home!" before she had latched on to his left hand and started dragging him away. Fortunately he had anticipated this and taken his shoes off first.

"Yeah yeah." Shirou agreed with the good nature of an adult granting the whims of a child. "There's no need to rush so much, Ilya."

"Mou!" Ilya blew air out of her mouth, forcing her bangs up as she pouted. "It's already five minutes to one, niichan! If you hadn't wasted your morning on unnecessary things then we wouldn't be behind schedule!" With that, Ilya grabbed his arm, and tugged him around the corner of the entrance hall and past the dining room.

"Welcome back!" Taiga shouted, without getting up or even turning from where she was slumped over the table. Because it was a school break, she had been spending the majority of her time lounging in front of the television rather than doing anything productive.

"Welcome back!" From the kitchen, came the echo of Sakura's voice. Shirou felt a pang of guilt that he hadn't come back for lunch, but he'd properly called and let them know that he would be eating at the Copenhagen, because the restocking was going to take an unexpectedly long time. But, he also felt aggravation that Ilya and Fujinee had once again allowed Sakura to prepare the food, serve it, and now were completely allowing her to do the dishes by herself.

Well, Shirou felt annoyed with himself for letting Ilya be spoiled so much. He had already given up on Fujinee as a fundamentally lost cause, in many ways.

"Ilya," he began, but he was completely overruled before he could actually start scolding.

"Never mind any of that!" Ilya declared, accelerating in a last spurt before hitting the brakes and smoothly sliding to a stop right in front of his room.

Shirou stumbled. Because he wasn't a child anymore, his skill at sliding around on the hardwood floor in his socks had degraded, compared to Ilya who sharpened her natural talent with daily practice.

Ilya flung aside the door to his room, and Shirou winced as it nearly jumped off the slide track. Ilya was the kind of person who demanded three times as much home maintenance compared to a regular person.

The partition between his room and what he still considered Saber's room was completely opened, with a futon on either side. It had seemed inappropriate to him to have both set up in the same room. Normally he definitely would have lost to Ilya in an argument like that, but he had received some unexpected support from Sakura when he insisted that Ilya and him be in at least these technically separate rooms.

So now the stuffed lion shared his desk with the computer that Ilya had received as a present from Grampa Fujimura, as well as the new one that had been specifically purchased for him to use today. It was also built with equipment and cards specialized for running games, although its specifications were not as high as Ilya's top-line machine. There was only one monitor, keyboard, and mouse on the desk. Since they were only necessary for starting up the software, Ilya had just used a KVM switch instead of bothering to lug duplicate interfaces into the room.

And, of course, the NerveGear helmets that were attached to each machine, resting prominently on the pillows that were placed at the head of each futon.

While Shirou took in the changes to his room in one glance, Ilya latched on to his hand and once again insistently tugged him forward. She pulled him over to his own futon and patted his shoulders. Bemused, Shirou obediently kneeled, and allowed Ilya to reach up and pull the NerveGear onto his head, tugging it into place, and then closing and adjusting the chin strap.

"There!" She announced. Her voice was slightly muffled because of the heavy construction, and there was a slightly distracting whirring sound because of the electronics. In terms of vision, he could still see through the visor, although his peripheral vision was obstructed, which made him slightly nervous. In the upper right hand of the visor's HUD he could see the lighting-and-rectangle logo for a fully charged battery with an external power connection. In the upper left hand was a digital clock with anachronistic block numerals displaying "13:58".

"You don't have to worry about character design at all." Ilya declared. "I imported one of my beta alts, so all you have to do is click [accept] at the prompt to import the beta account details, okay?" Of course, her question was merely requiring a response that he acknowledge what he'd heard. Inside Ilya's head, there wasn't even one thought that considered whether Shirou would be interested in designing his own character instead of the one she'd prepared for him. That was the level of imperiousness that she had.

Thinking like that, Shirou indulgently said "yeah, yeah" even as he shifted around, sliding forward to lay down on his back on top of the futon, resting his head on the pillow. He could hear rusting from beside him as Ilya stuck her own helmet on and laid down on her futon at his side.

"Link Start." Ilya commanded.

"Link: start." Shirou intoned. Unwittingly, he said it with the same cadence as the self-hypnosis that he used when he activated his magic circuits with Trace On. But that thought was pushed aside as his senses dissolved into a white nothingness. Sight was blanked out. Sound was reduced to zero. Touch was absorbed into absolute numbness. Smell was gone and so was taste. When he thought of that, he realized that the numbness prevented him from even touching his teeth with his tongue.

But after only an instant like that, pillars of color drifted past him, and he arrived before holographic blue gears labeled in English. Sight, Sound, Touch, Smell, and Taste were each in turn synchronized. He could feel his body again, but intellectually he realized that it was all virtual sensation from the software being directly injected into his brain by the electromagnetic waves of the NerveGear, while the signals going from his brain to his body were interrupted by the artificial activation of his brain's sleep mechanisms.

A pop up prompted his thought processes and set the system interface language to Japanese based on his defaults. He had considered setting it to English as foreign language practice, but rejected it as a mediocre way to practice in exchange for constant annoyance. Besides, it wouldn't even impress Fujinee. While he was thinking about that, another prompt appeared, two fields for his user name and his password. Shirou was briefly struck by the absurdity of the characters being displayed as asterisks inside a virtual interface where it was absolutely impossible for someone to be spying over his shoulder.

And then the system prompt: would he like to import the beta character data? Briefly, he paused. It wasn't something he'd ever brought up, but if he had simply chosen for himself, then it would have been a choice between a simple copy of his own natural body, or to crossplay as a shorter blonde girl. Being honest with himself, it was a question of whether that would be disrespectful or not.

No, that was too heavy for what was really just a game to play with Ilya. He selected the "yes" in his mind and the system responded, importing the character data that Ilya had prepared for him. The text prompt disappeared and a swirl of electric blue lights converged at the center of his vision and dispersed, and with a sensation like falling, he landed in a crouch.

Emiya Shirou looked up. He was standing in a wide stone plaza. It was a circular space surrounded by tall buildings, with the appearance of Rome in the architecture of the marble columns standing out from the walls. A tall castle with a dark color stood at the north end of the plaza, with a staircase leading up to its gates interrupting the magnificent pillars around it.

The air smelled like spring, with the faint hint of grasses beyond the city pulled across the smell of earth and oils that typified a city. He could hear the hum of voices especially from the plaza, where it was interrupted by the near-constant convergent sound of the teleportation effect as players logged in.

He was short. He blinked, looking around, and then down at his body; his hands had a slightly pudgy look and his proportions were not lanky. He felt a moment of vertigo because of how alien the proportions were. His arms and legs were too short. His torso was too short. His limbs were too thin and lacked the muscle he needed to move the ways he would need to move in an emergency.

Instantly, he forced himself calm, feeling slightly ridiculous over his own disorientation. Remembering the advice Ilya had given him, he swiped at the air to open his menu, and calmly navigated to the character description page, where he read the statistics of the avatar Ilya had made for him. Hair color was set to Red (Auburn highlights). Eye color was set to brown as primary color with gold as a secondary color. His height was 127 cm. His mass was 31 kg. His character name was simply his given name, albeit written in all capital letters as if for emphasis.

As one final check, he placed his hands on his cheeks, determining that yes, they were round, perhaps even pudgy. This character avatar called SHIROU was definitely built on the concept of looking like 10-year-old Shirou.

With a put-upon sigh, he turned and jogged around, deciding to look for Ilya.

"Kyaa!" Even as he heard that, he was swept up over two meters over the ground, swamped by a hug. "You look so cute onii-chan!" With that kind of declaration, Shirou decided that he had probably found Ilya, or rather, that Ilya had found him. Well, that made sense, since she would have already known what his avatar looked like.

A pop-up menu prompt at the left side of his field of view caught his attention. With some difficultly, he reached out and dismissed the harassment notification. "Ilya", he calmly requested, "please set me down".

When she did, he looked at her avatar.

The character Ilya chose was a giant. 253 cm tall, massing 411 kg, without even a single gram of fat on those vast muscles like slabs of stone. The skin hue was set to dark gray, the face was like chiseled rocks, and the eyes and hair were both set to black. The starting equipment of the chest guard looked vaguely ridiculous, an unnecessary effect on the vast monster before him; because there was no shirt item equipped under the armor, Shirou could clearly see that Ilya had set the slider for muscle size all the way to the maximum. In terms of the remaining visible items, Ilya's avatar was barefoot, with a kilt-type equip instead of pants. With an excited appearance and a delighted smile that was both extremely incongruous and deeply unsettling, the giant before him was manipulating a menu he couldn't see.

[Accept friend request from Berserkah? Y/N]

Shirou sighed as he toggled the yes button on the floating prompt. "Did someone already take [Berserker] on you, Ilya?"

With a petulant frown, the giant before him nodded. "Yes! Even all the way back at the very beginning of the beta, it was already taken by someone else!" She (he? it?) crossed those vast arms across that vast chest and pouted.

Shirou could not handle this.

"Let's just go." Shirou said, sighing.

"Okay!" Ilya cheered. "Don't worry, with my help we'll definitely grind all the way to level five before the end of the day!" And after saying that, Ilya seized his hand exactly as she had not even fifteen minutes ago, and started dragging him away. Nearly dangling instead of walking because of the huge difference in height, Shirou sighed patiently even as Ilya started babbling excitedly about what he should equip and what his build should be.

I I I

"Alright!" Ilya announced, pointing at the blue-furred pig-type monster. "You're going to start by hunting this boar mob, Shirou!"

Shirou nodded, before responding seriously. "There's only one. Is that really something you can call a mob?"

Ilya pouted. Shirou estimated it would take him at least two months before he would be able to accept that kind of childish look on that kind of terrifying face without looking twice. "That doesn't matter! Just use a Sword Skill on it! You've got the basic one-handed curved type equipped, so just activate Horizontal or Reaver on it!"

Shirou felt slightly foolish, but he casually walked up to the boar, which was contentedly ignoring him and plodding around. He unsheathed his sword with his right hand, raised it carefully, and stepped forward with his leading foot as he slashed his blade down.

With precision and confident speed, the tip of the sword cut down into the neck of the boar deep enough to sever the spine, while the following edge going down far enough to cut through the jugular vein. When the sword cleared, Shirou stepped back as the smooth follow-through brought the sword around to the far side, as he calmly reset his stance.

[Critical Hit!]

Following that cheery announcement, the boar gave a dying squeal as the floating status bar immediately emptied, passing from green, through yellow, to red, before completely emptying out. With the signature futuristic sound, the boar wavered and burst into blue-green pixel fragments which evaporated.

"I've never even heard of someone getting a [Critical Hit] on an attack that didn't use the System Assist." Ilya said, with some amazement in her voice.

"Really?" Shirou said, glancing over his side. "This is almost too easy." Casually he relaxed from the wide stance until he was standing normally, glancing around as he scanned for other monsters, before turning his attention back to Ilya. "I mean, a straight cut with such a light sword against an opponent that's moving so slowly and ignoring you?" He shook his head.

"That's the point!" Ilya protested. "This game is aimed at people who haven't ever even held a sword before! These monsters are just vendor trash for noobs to grind Sword Skills on." Ilya crossed those vast arms again. "Just pretend you're a normal civilian."

Shirou sighed. "Yeah yeah." He conscientiously put a smile on his face and looked up at Ilya. "So how do Sword Skills work in this game, Ilya?"

Ilya nodded vigorously, and drew her own sword, which was the basic one-hand straight sword. She had already explained to Shirou that she wanted to build this character as a strength-oriented two-handed sword user. But for right now, her character looked ridiculous because that initial equip weapon was about the same length and width as her avatar's pointer finger.

"The Sword Skills in the game Sword Art Online are all based on the System Assist for Command Inputs." Ilya proudly said, regurgitating information from the game manual in her own words. "What you do, is hold the sword and take the stance. It's like your body is compressing a spring, and then when you coiled up to the right compression, the system automatically releases the pent-up power and launches the Attack." To demonstrate, Ilya struck a pose, and raised her sword before her, slowly pulling it back as the blade hung parallel to the ground. When the hilt was nearly touching her cheek, a charging sound effect began, and the sword's blade emitted a yellow glow. When the charge sound had stopped changing pitch and become stable, the light effect had also become constant; then, Ilya nodded, and her body moved automatically. She moved forward over four meters in a single step, swinging the sword in a combination attack that began as a cut but finished as a forward thrust. When it was complete, Ilya dramatically held the end position, before standing. "See! Now you try!"

Shirou nodded. He emptied his mind, and calmed his breathing. Even if the breathing was a simulation, he synchronized it with his motions. He raised the sword, adjusting his grip with his fingers. The sword began to glow red. The distinct whining sound effect of the charge animation started up. His body was like a finger threading into the trigger guard and gently resting on the trigger, carefully adjusting to exactly the right position. The red light was stable. The noise was constant.

Shirou pulled the mental trigger. The Skill was the firing pin, the shell, and the gunpowder; his sword was shot without any further requirements from him. His body responded automatically like the mechanism to eject the spent case and reload the next round. His body was like a machine that moved as a programmed result of his input, rather than adjusted by his control.

The sword flashed out, and Shirou felt his body stand motionless for less than a heartbeat when he was finished. That moment of automatic weakness bothered him; even if it was a fraction of a second, it was designed to be make him a target. If there had been an enemy around, it would have terrified him instead of merely bothering him. That moment definitely convinced him that Sword Art Online was a game, not a training simulation. However...

"Mou! First try!" Shirou didn't know why Ilya was complaining about that. Because he was thinking so hard, he wasn't focused on what she was saying. He was thinking: However, even if the step went ridiculously long, even if the swing went cartoonishly wide, even if there was that opening labeled "please counterattack me" enforced at the end, there was certainly something serious at the foundation of the System Assist. The adjustment of grip strength in each finger before, during, and after the cut; the moment when the muscles dynamically flexed to maximum exertion after moving the sword at maximum limberness; even the way the path of the edge, and of the sword's centerline, was kept perfectly aligned along the imaginary plane of the sword's motion: if the basic silhouette was cheap theatrics, the details were murderously realistic.

"Ilya," he began, "How was the System Assist designed?" Shirou asked quietly.

"Eh?" Ilya blinked. "There was a magazine article about that. Kayaba hired all kinds of martial artists and fencers and tournament fighters and blew a medium-sized fortune on motion capture and interviews to revise the motion data. Then the capture data set from that was integrated into a motion-library that the Argus' company programmers used to build the Sword Arts out of. Supposedly Argus is going to license the motion-library to anybody that wants to build a fighting game with the NerveGear." Ilya tilted her head to the side. Seeing that kind of cute motion on that kind of intimidating body still bothered him. "Why do you ask, Shirou?"

Shirou shook his head. "I was just a little curious, that's all." Honestly, that sounded like a perfect explanation for the sensation of the Sword Arts. Realistic details from professional fighters used to assemble unrealistic attacks by professional game programmers. But it was strange that Kayaba could have talked Argus into spending so much money on making those details so perfect.

Well, it wasn't something that concerned Shirou in the end. "Ilya," he said, "let's keep playing."

"Yeah!" Ilya said, punching the air in enthusiasm. "We're gonna farm mobs like crazy!"

Shirou understood the meaning of that sentence, but he would estimate 50% of the nuance went over his head. Still, even so, he simply agreed, saying "yeah yeah" with the same good nature he always had.

I I I

Shirou shook his head, even though he knew the disorientation of the forced teleport effect would be unaffected by that. Still, he glanced around casually, seeing as more and more players were teleporting into the plaza. They all milled about, looking impatient and annoyed. Probably they were all offended that something as basic as the [Logout] command was broken on the first day of the launch. Shirou didn't mind the inconvenience for himself, although he hoped they solved it soon. Because if he was still here in an hour or two, then Sakura would start dinner, and cooking both lunch and dinner was simply too unfair to her.

The bell in the tower in the center of the plaza stopped ringing. The sky went dark as red hexagons spread out, popping into existence one after another across the air above the central plaza of the Starting City. A hush fell over the crowd at the theatrical effect; even if the people gathered here were generally annoyed by the bug, the grandeur of the effect mostly replaced the annoyance with a pleased sense of awe.

Blood poured from the gaps of the hexagons. No, it wasn't blood, not really. The virtual fluid, with the same red color as blood, the same viscosity as blood, the same texture as blood, poured out from between the hexagons, it gushed downward and gathered unnaturally. The clot grew as the virtual blood smoothly poured into it from the sky effect. The clot grew, and pulsed, and throbbed as lighting effects arched across it, and twisted around once.

Shirou's gaze didn't break when he sensed the vast hand reaching down. Calmly he simply raised his own arm above his shoulder level and held out his own open hand. When that hand as wide as his torso closed around his own left hand, he could only wrap his grip around the pointer finger, so he did, and gave Ilya a reassuring squeeze.

The twist completed, the virtual blood clot solidified, morphed, changed into a giant figure completely obscured by a thick red robe.

"Game Master?" Ilya murmured. Since the unsettling blood effect had finished, she didn't sound hesitant, but rather just confused by why such a huge effect had been animated.

The Game Master avatar hung in space, suspended in the air above the gate to the huge castle at the north of the plaza. After a dramatic pause, it began to speak. The voice was not especially loud, but it resonated widely so that every player present could certainly hear it.

_"Attention Players._

_"Welcome to my world._

_"My name is Kayaba Akihito._

_"As of this moment, I am the supreme entity in control of this world._

_"I'm sure you have already noticed that the [Logout] button is missing from the main menu."_

The right hand of that floating giant rose with ponderous slowness, and then tapped the air in front of it, calling the menu exactly as if it, the GM, had been a normal player. The menu was scaled proportionate to the GM, and set to global visibility, so even if it was backwards, everyone there could see as the GM navigated to where the [Logout] command should have been.

_"But this is not a defect in the game._

_"I repeat, this is not a defect in the game._

_"It is a feature of Sword Art Online._

_"You cannot log out of SAO yourselves._

_"And no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear._

_"Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave pulse, destroying your brain and ending your life."_

The GM allowed another dramatic pause. Shirou took the chance to quickly glance around him; the expressions on the faces around him were like beaches with waves of horror crashing onto them. No, they were like the faces of people standing on the shore, watching the ocean withdrawing and building into a tsunami, knowing that there was absolutely nothing they could do to prevent the incoming disaster. Voices were filled with that horror. Several tense conversations whispered around him verified that the NerveGear was technically capable of what the GM was describing.

_"Unfortunately several players' friends and family have ignored this warning, and attempted to remove the NerveGear._

_"As a result, 213 players are gone forever, both from Aincrad and the real world."_

Again the GM navigated his menu, although it had automatically reset to private visibility, so that his motions remained inscrutable until various browser holographs became visible, the floating rectangles displaying various news threads, television news programs, and live videos of involved people.

But while he was doing that, a sensation like a cold blob of iron entered Shirou's chest. Even though it felt like it sat right under his diaphragm, it didn't interfere with his controlled breathing. The iron was heated by his outrage until it was hot. It was shaped and sharpened by his anger at the senseless deaths of 213 people.

_"As you can see, news organizations across the world are reporting this, including the deaths._

_"Thus, you can assume the danger of a NerveGear being removed is now minimal._

_"I hope you will relax and focus on clearing the game."_

Although it had been delivered with the same simplicity as the rest of the announcement, as if up until now had been a formality that simply had to be gotten through, it was only now that something like real intent crept into the voice of the floating GM. The outrage in Shirou was forcibly cooled. The iron was hardened. Getting too emotional in battle was a mistake.

_"I hope you remember this clearly. All methods to revive someone within the game have been removed._

_"If your HP is reduced to zero, your avatar will be lost._

_"And simultaneously, the NerveGear will destroy your brain."_

Shirou clenched his jaw tightly. It was too early to move, but he imagined that his soul inhabiting this virtual body was ready to launch that sword of anger out of his chest and destroy the GM avatar, to destroy this scenario that Kayaba had created, that had already killed people!

_"There is only one means of escape."_

The menu was manipulated. A vast cylindrical hologram sprung up, stacked plates. The virtual world of Aincrad.

_"To complete the game._

_"You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, floor one._

_"If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the floor boss, you may advance to the next floor._

_"Defeat the final boss on floor 100, and you will clear the game."_

There was another pause. Shirou kept the GM avatar in the field of his vision as he swept his gaze around. He analyzed the people around him. Compared to the horror of inevitable drowning, the expressions were like people that realized the one boat remaining was just a rusty fishing dingy. The chance of survival was above 0%, but it was still so low that it was more like mockery than a real possibility to salvation. The horror evolved into anger at such mockery.

_"Finally, I've added a present from me to your item storage._

_"Please see for yourselves."_

Shirou simply kept staring. He was like a lump of steel shaped like a human. He had no intention of making even one unnecessary movement. Even if it was pointless, he had no intention of cooperating even that much. Still, his menu opened automatically, and navigated through to his item inventory. It scrolled down past the "boar meat" and other bits and pieces that had accumulated over his afternoon. At the very bottom, a new item had been incremented into his inventory. It was a single non-stacking consumable item. It was automatically activated.

The item was called [Magical Mirror] and it materialized as a circle of glass before shattering into pixels. The cold expression on his childish face was apparent to Shirou for only an instant.

There was a flash of blue light, and a pulse of nothingness exactly like he had experienced during character creation, when the sensations from his real body turned off but before the sensations of the avatar body were routed in.

No. It was worse. This dangerous warmth that saturated his brain and spread down his spine, then radiated until it felt like needles piercing the tip of every finger and toe.

That heat was definitely from prana running through him. If it was something that he could feel with every single body sensation interrupted, then that simply meant he was detecting the interference with his circuits. He hadn't been running them, so he wasn't able to scrub the enchantment out of his soul by circulating prana.

Even as the warmth completed flowing leaving only the phantom sensation of heat behind, like stepping out of a too-hot house into the fall air in front of an instantly-closing door, all other body sensations returned from a rebooting avatar. He blinked. His perspective was approximately 40 cm higher from the ground while standing. He glanced down at his body, and felt the most complete sense of déjà-vu he'd ever experienced when he recognized his own body from the inside after operating that childish form for several hours. He glanced to the side, where Ilya looked similarly disoriented. And it was definitely Ilya; the short, pale girl was standing there. The contrast between the mountain-like giant and the fairy-like little girl was extreme. Her equipment had also changed scale, although the lack of shirt under her chest protector now looked indecent rather than absurd.

People were screaming and shouting. Shirou ignored them as he made eye contact with Ilya. His intense gaze asked the question without any need for words. With a solemn expression, that had a hint of embarrassment, Ilya nodded. Compared to the expectations even these previous five minutes have given him, the situation has already gotten much worse than Emiya Shirou had expected.

_"At this time I would like to announce the first content expansion for SAO._

_"The system for simulating Thaumaturgy has been enabled._

_"That is to say, the skills of manifesting mysteries and wonders, individually called [Spells], are now available._

_"It is complete and accurate to the best of my ability as a simulator._

_"Please note that the item selection and Equippable Skills have been updated to eliminate ambiguities and overlaps with magecraft. [Items], such as [Teleport Crystals], and [Skills], such as [Night Vision], that produce supernatural effects have been removed as redundant and unnecessary._

_"I highly encourage you to develop your skills as a magic user. They will be indispensable in clearing the game."_

The precision was more disturbing than the content of those words. Shirou pursed his lips, and when Ilya tentatively moved her arm, he reached out to take her hand again. Kayaba Akihito was definitely a magic user. For exposing the secret truth that [Magic is Real] to these 10,000 people gathered here, even if it was in virtual reality. He would definitely be Sealed as a Philosopher and hunted down as a threat to the most important treaty item agreed upon by all true practitioners of the Great Crafts.

More importantly, in doing so, he had made these 10,000 people accessories to his crime. Whether they would be brainwashed with memory alteration or simply executed depended on the skills and inclinations of the investigative body. But with this many gathered witnesses, they would definitely prioritize expedience and thoroughness over smoothing it down, let alone something as useless to them as mercy.

However, there was a critical prerequisite to that situation occurring. Shirou's mind raced as he calculated. Because silencing Kayaba required that the Enforcers become aware of his words in the first place. The announcement was made to 10,000 people, but those 10,000 people were completely cut off from the rest of human civilization by the [Death Game] settings. This situation was like a sealed room murder before the first witness discovered the corpse. Right now, the only people that even knew the crime had been committed were the ones that were directly involved as the sinner and the victims. By the time the room was unlocked, it was already too late to save anyone.

No. The absolute worst case scenario was, that by the time the sealed room was unlocked, by the time the crime scene was found by the Enforcers… they would see only criminals, without any victims. They would simply execute everyone involved without a shred of hesitation.

_"Right now, you're probably wondering why._

_"Why would Kayaba Akihito, the developer of the NerveGear and SAO, do all of this?_

_"I will respond without answering by way of an old saying: 'To be a magus is to walk with death.'_

_"If you wish to uncover my motive, struggle to clear the game._

_"I hope that you will endorse my objective when it becomes clear._

_"But no matter what, I will be pleased if you all develop into excellent magic users._

_"In the meantime, please consider this mystery as the central plot of the game SAO, and endeavor to solve it."_

There was a pause as the GM avatar finished delivering the speech. The emotions that had excited the voice as Kayaba described his logic while still leaving his reasons opaque were completed with that paragraph. The following words were delivered as a necessary formality, a ritual that required calm delivery on his part without particular excitement.

_"This ends the tutorial for the official SAO launch._

_"Good luck."_

The avatar slumped midair. Strange vapors escaped from the hood and sleeves as it deflated and began to fall. Before it could fall even ten meters, though, it dissolved into nothingness. It did not shatter into the blue-green triangles and dissolve; it simply faded transparent until it was invisible and presumably gone. Compared to the normal logic of Aincrad, it was definitely an unnatural way for the GM avatar to go.

It was quiet.

The air was thick with tension. It was pressure. It was pushing everyone down. The tension was squeezing everyone like the air was winding into straps around them. No one dared to move. It was like everyone stopped breathing and didn't start up again because it was unnecessary for these virtual bodies.

And then someone screamed.

It was the starting gun at a track meet. People instantly began running, pushing around, wearing among each other and knocking over and about other people without any consideration. Shirou was relieved that it was impossible to lose HP inside a [Safe Zone] because that meant at least no one would be trampled to death or even injured in this riot.

"Shirou." Ilya said. Her voice was uncertain, and tense. Rather than worried about death, he could tell that she experienced the same emotion he did right then: profound uncertainty. Compared to the Grail War that had shaped both their lives, the immediate threat of death was much lower, but the goal of Kayaba Akihito was completely unclear. Even if the method of winning the game was obviously announced, the true nature of the Grail that Kayaba sought was totally inscrutable.

"Shirou," Ilya began, "what should we do?"

Kayaba Akihito had trapped thousands of people in a virtual world for ultimately unknown reasons. They were trapped in a death game. When the game was completed, everyone left over would be tossed out of this tiny pond called Aincrad into the vast ocean called the real world, where they would be devoured for knowing too much.

What should Emiya Shirou do? Like he even needed to ask himself such an obvious question.

"Ilya", Shirou began, "during the beta, where were the starting quests with the highest failure rates?"

Emiya Shirou would save as many people as he could.

The first battle was always the most dangerous, that was a general rule across all warfare. There were differences in the danger of any conflict, due to tactics, asymmetrical preparation, and geography; but for an individual, the first battle, when they completely lacked experience, was by default the most dangerous. In a virtual world like Aincrad, that was even closer to absolutely true than in the real world. When the relative threat could be so easily and accurately assessed with a level mechanic, there was no excuse for getting into a fight you couldn't win. Just put those convenient numbers on a scale, and if it tips against you, retreat. But the exception was level one. Even at level two, it was possible to develop a margin of safety by fighting down. It was manifestly impossible to do so when there was nothing below you. Combining the psychological lack of battle experience with the game mechanic lack of XP: according to Emiya Shirou's estimate, the most dangerous period of the [Death Game] was about to begin.

Disregarding his own loss and gain, he wouldn't seek any XP or items for himself. Rather he would interfere in battles that other people were in danger of losing.

Even if she didn't precisely follow his thoughts, Ilya could understand the general direction. So, she groaned theatrically and puffed her cheeks, frowning as she knit her brows together. "Why can't you just stay with me, Shirou?" There was a plaintiveness, there was a heaviness in that question that deeply underlay her childish antics. "Why do you have to go and save strangers instead?"

Shirou blinked. "Ilya, I can't do this without you."

The darkness evaporated as Ilya's expression cleared. "Eh?"

Shirou frowned slightly as he explained the obvious. "Your experience as a beta tester is a vital tactical edge. I need your knowledge if we're going to prevent people from dying in the early part of the game. I need you with me, Ilya." Shirou pursued his lips. "I'm frustrated at myself for having to put you in danger, but I can't see a better path than this. Just pretend I'm the Servant and you're the Master, and support me with tactical knowledge without entering battle, okay?"

Ilya stared. Her face was slack and her gaze was amazed. Then, like a sunrise, she smiled. She leaned forward and slammed her shoulder into Shirou's belly, wrapping her arms around his waist in a fierce hug. She didn't say anything. It was unnecessary for her to agree or disagree when her endorsement was so clear. She simply hugged Emiya Shirou. Carefully, he patted her on the head with one hand, and dismissed the harassment query with the other.

With the world screaming around them, with people collapsing in despair, screaming in fear, and raging in fear, there was this one island of happiness, where Ilyasivel von Einzbern was hugging her oniichan, Emiya Shirou.


	2. 1:2 TD 1

"Shirou?" A feminine voice called out, and there was a soft sound of pad-pad-pad from her feet.

Then, the door of his room in the house was slid open.

With a dissatisfied scowl, Tohsaka Rin frowned as she looked down at the boy.

"Mou, Shirou, it's already time for you to make dinner." She complained. However, her eyes did not stray from the appearance of the boy laying peacefully on his futon. Even with that big stupid helmet, even if he was still wearing his jeans and long-sleeve t-shirt, and even if that pale girl was curled up on the futon right next to his, the completely helpless and sleeping Shirou in front of her….

Rin shook her head, before kneeling beside him. "Come on, Shirou, it's already past six."

Hesitating only a minute with her fingers over his face, Rin undid the clasp on the helmet, and pushed it off Shirou's head.

At the same instant, a powerful electromagnetic pulse was emitted from the helmet, and the brain of Emiya Shirou was totally cooked by microwaves.

With a grunt and a flop as his muscles were involuntarily stimulated by the indiscriminate electric flow in his brain, he became instant still after that.

"Shirou."

"Shirou?"

"SHIROU!"

As Rin began to panic, the screen faded to black and a logo appeared on the screen with lazor sounds.

(FISSION MAILED)

… (click)

TIGER DOJO

Take the strange advice? Y/N

Y (click)

"HI HI!" With a cheerful wave, Fujimura Taiga, wearing the traditional white kimono and blue hakama of someone who practices kendo, smiled happily with her eyes closed. "It's this early, but already we achieved a Dead End!" After finishing that sentence, she could only shake her head in dejection, making a face like "tsk tsk" at the same time. "What do think about that, First Student!"

Appearing beside her with a fade effect rather than walking on from offstage of anything like that, a new character appeared.

With an uncomfortable blush, squeezing her legs together even as she pushed the hem of her shirt down with her hands to cover her thighs, Saber still struggled to maintain her dignity. However, because of how tight that pulled the shirt down, the little square logo labeled "1-A" was pulled taunt against her chest. "W-well, it's important to keep your guard up, even before the battle begins. If you don't you can lose to an unexpected surprise attack."

With a superior nod, Taiga agreed. "That's right! Don't make such a dumb mistake like testing Kayaba's seriousness! Just assume it's another fight to the death and stupidly charge forward!" Having said that, she exaggerated her exclamation point by thrusting her shinai into the air.

"Now that we have resolved that." Saber said, squirming uncomfortably, "Taiga, I demand to know why I have to wear such shameful clothing."

"Tradition!" Taiga roared. Even as she pulled the guts pose with clenched fists radiating out from elbows tucked at her sides, the sound effect of a tiger roaring was accompanied by the background changing to a fierce-looking tiger's head.

Like that, Taiga continued needlessly shouting. "Because it's the Tiger Dojo we have the Master and the First Student! And the Master is me, Fujimura Taiga, while the First Student is the Heroine from the impossible Route! And the First Student wears bloomers!"

With a serious nod, Saber took that in. "I see. So all I have to do is—"

"Wait," Shirou said, "there's nothing I can do about that."

"S-s-Shirou!" Completely interrupted, Saber returned to tugging the shirt down past the indecent bloomers that were ostensibly her pants.

"That's right!" Taiga roared. "Shirou-kun can never go against me!"

"No," Shirou instantly dismissed her. "I mean, there's nothing I can do about Tohsaka pulling the NerveGear off my head."

"Oh." Taiga said. "That." After a short pause, the irrepressible spirit of the one called things like "the human jet rocket" ignited. "Well just do what you do best! Plunge in with guts and when those guts get splattered all over the sidewalk just let Avalon fix you good as new! Banzai!"

"Shirou." Saber hesitantly began. "P-please stop staring."

"DON'T IGNORE ME!" With such a petulant demand, the bloodthirsty Tora-Shinai was unleashed and howled through the air.

[Critical Hit!]

"Blarg!" Shirou made a stupid sound as he spun through the air and slammed into the wall behind them.

Taiga once again turned to address the audience. "Right! The important thing is to just keep trying! Actually since this is even more old-fashioned than a visual novel, it's completely linear without you having to do anything other than just clicking forward or scrolling down or whatever! Yosh!"

And the doors closed on the strange advice corner.


	3. 2:1 Asuna and Ilya

It had already been two weeks.

In the time since Kayaba Akihiko had announced they were all participating in a mandatory [Death Game] with no other way to escape, that time had already been two weeks. And, the number of lives that had been claimed by the Game's [Death] parameter had just crossed 300 people earlier that day.

Certainly, it would be possible to just wait in the [Starting City] until computer programmers in the real world were able to hack into the servers and log everyone out. That was probably the safest and most reliable plan, to hunker down like a child lost in the woods and wait for rescue. Considering her father's position, it wasn't even arrogant to think that they would be coming to save her personally.

But that might take weeks, months, or years. To simply wait, holed up in a dark room in the Starting City for as long as that took, spending that span of life without gaining anything, that was just too miserable for her. And besides, there was an important psychological component as well: if people did not participate in the [Death Game], then that guy might simply change the rules so they were forced to play.

And so, after two weeks of simply hiding from everything, the player designated [ASUNA] stepped out into the virtual sunlight, determined that if she was going to die pointlessly in the game, then at the very last moment, at least she could be content that she had done everything in her power first. Burning up like a meteor was better than simply floating in darkness like a comet.

With thoughts like that, which sat halfway between courageous resolve and suicidal despair, she had bought this item called [Heavy Wool Cloak] and then spent the remainder of her money on as many copies of the [Bronze Rapier] as she could. From now, the limit of how many times she could use the [One-Handed Light Sword Skill: Linear] was measured only by the cumulative durability of her stack of sword items.

Turning half a step away from the vendor, she swung her hand and opened the menu, navigating through and equipping the cloak and the first sword. With a dramatic swirl, it appeared above her shoulders and fell across them with an effect similar to a curtain falling over the stage.

Like that, while she was hardening her heart, she heard a scream.

"Kyaa!"

It was the voice of a little girl. Asuna turned automatically to look over her shoulder. The sound had come from behind her. At the end of the twisted alley she was in, there was a T-junction where her current position joined with another alley. The scream had echoed from that direction.

Crouching with her feet crossed, she watched as a pale little girl, so pure white she could have been an albino, years younger than her, without any weapon equipped, ran across the T-junction. And, following her, were three adult men, with scruffy appearances and ragged clothing like thugs or bandits, with weapons drawn. If she had to describe it in game-like terms, than it would be something like "a fairy chased by three orcs" or so.

The NPC item vendors stood without reacting. Well, that's something that should rationally be expected. However, she was not an NPC. She was a real human, with regular human morality.

She ran, chasing after the girl who was being chased by those three bad guys. She sprinted at top speed, and because it was a game, there was no sensation of exhaustion, she didn't become winded; there wasn't even something like a stamina bar that decremented when she moved. This was fortunate in its own way because the absolute worst case scenario had occurred.

When she crossed the T-junction, that pale little girl had been trapped in the alleyway's dead end. She was standing with her back to the wall, looking back and forth as those three guys advanced menacingly towards her.

"Stop!" With a desperate shout, Asuna whipped her sword out, pointing it at the villain in the middle of the trio.

They turned. Frankly speaking, compared to the red icons floating over their heads, the absolutely cold expressions on their faces were much more terrifying. Asuna frowned, clenching her teeth, clenching her sword in her hand. If she gave up her, she failed. She would not lose the death game, but rather, she would lose as a human. So even though her legs were trembling, she firmly stood her ground.

"This has nothing to do with you." The first bandit said. In his right hand he had the basic [Bronze Curved Sword] equipped; in his left hand a [Wood Buckler] was firmly held. "Just walk away." He ordered.

"No!" Asuna announced. "I won't let you!"

"Then," the bandit replied, taking another step forward, "die." That right hand holding that sword came up.

Without thinking about it too much, Asuna altered the tension in her body from rigid fear to a bowstring getting pulled back, and then released her sword skill.

The downward swing was completely interrupted. The [Bronze Rapier] in her right hand had already jabbed into him, forcing him back. Just like that, his HP bar was forced into the Yellow. She had done it. Using her sword just once had chopped off more than half his life. She could win. She pulled the sword back and loaded it. She could kill him if-"

And she paused, the light of the [Linear] disappearing like a candle snuffed out by cold wind. Yes, if she used that skill one more time, she would kill someone. They would die, not just in the game, but in the real world as well. She hesitated because she asked herself: could she really do that to someone? Even if they deserved it, could she kill someone?

"You!" The bandit sneered, recovering his balance. He raised the sword again, this time more wary. Beside him, his two companions fanned out, to surround her. Asuna, locked in place by her own uncertainty, was in no position to win.

"Ah— You're kind of weak, huh?" Saying that, with a soft, light voice appropriate to such a little girl, the child she had come here to save from these guys, was casually navigating a menu. With a decisive motion, she tapped a button.

That pale little girl equipped the [Bronze Two-Handed Sword]. She reached back and with just one hand, moved it from the [Carry] position to easily hold it before her in the [Active] position. That piece of sharpened metal looked like a vast slab. That girl looked ridiculous holding such a big weapon with such small arms, but the size of the body was irrelevant compared to the Strength parameter. The sword began to glow with a terrible red color.

Without any warning, the sword dipped and swung around as the [Two-Handed Sword Skill: Broad Horizontal] was activated by the player. A vast flat arc flashed, instantly cleaving the guy that Asuna had stabbed. It was complete overkill. He wasn't just slashed, but totally cut in half.

Without any hesitation, while everyone stared in shock, that pale little girl simply raised her sword one more time. Another sword art charged. The bandits reacted, stiffening into guard positions as they fell back, but by then it was simply too late. Even as the first bandit dissipated into pixels, that little girl was moving again.

[Big Diagonal] was launched, and that huge sword whipped out and down, the edge cutting into the right shoulder of the bandit. It simply bypassed the sword that had been raised in desperate defense and cut into him. The tip was completely clear of his back as the Sword Skill kept going, emerging from just above the left hip, barely clearing where the hipbone would have been in a real person.

As the second bandit was ripped into two pieces, the third cried out in horror and turned, running away.

That huge sword was raised into position a third time. The cute little girl sank into a wide stance with her left foot forward. Her arms were crossed over and out from her left shoulder, left hand supporting the leading right hand. From that classical position, with a half-circle of twist in the blade, one last skill was launched. Compared to Asuna's, this [Linear] was slower, with a shorter range despite being a bigger weapon, but the bigger damage potential combined with the [Back Attack] bonus meant that the third bandit was also completely obliterated.

With a tiny giggle, the girl turned to face Asuna with a warm, unsettling smile. "Still, that kind of sincere effort in a weakling is just so cute!" With that kind of disturbing proclamation, she cocked her head. "What's your name?"

Asuna swallowed. "You-" she shook her head. "You just killed three people!" It was a stray thought, but as someone who excelled in academics, it was an appropriate piece of trivia that crossed her mind: in the original mythology, fairies were definitely scarier than orcs.

With a confused expression, the little girl tapped her chin with one finger. "But they were just NPCs, you know?"

"NPCs… those guys?" Asuna asked.

There was a pause while she considered the real depth of the ignorance of the older girl in front of her, and then with that same warm, unsettling smile the girl nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! Didn't you notice the red cursors? Only NPCs get red, even [criminal players] never graduate past orange. They were the mobs from the special female-PC-only quest, [Damsel in Distress]. In the beta it was the number-one most popular way to flirt with other PCs." With that kind of ridiculous comment about the culture and logic of video games, the girl nodded. "Since it's a combat quest in a safezone it doesn't award any XP or Col, but I've been grinding it because it's the fastest way to farm RP-related items in the [Starting City]." With one last nod, the little girl couldn't resist adding a finishing blow. "Ah, having said that I'm flattered, but I'm not into Yuri. So in that sense you wasted your time doing the other half of the quest."

Asuna was flummoxed. She was confused in at least three ways, but she focused on the one most critical to her mental wellbeing. "So, those guys were NPCs, huh?" She smiled. "That's good."

Then, Asuna blinked, because in her field of view, an icon popped up.

[Quest Complete!]

Meanwhile, across from her, the little girl also reacted to the same dialogue, a delighted smile quickly collapsing into a mighty frown as she read the results. "Mou! Another miss!" She looked up. "Did you get anything?" The little girl demanded.

With a beat of hesitation, Asuna clicked the [OK] button on the icon, and read the results. Just like the girl had said, the Col and XP were both zero, but in the item field, there was a result-

"Name tag?" Asuna read aloud.

"Ah!" The girl stamped her foot, petulantly. "No fair! That's the item I've been trying to farm!"

"—Would you like it?" Asuna asked, since that was the socially obvious response.

With an excited agreement, the girl quickly flipped through menus that Asuna could see, and then a new dialogue popped up.

[Trade with Berserkah?]

Listed in the [Offer From] box column was 1,000 Col. Was this item really worth that much?

No, other than that, there was another question. "Berserkah?" Asuna asked. The incredulous tone might be considered rude if you were someone that worried about that kind of thing.

Once again, the little girl petulantly stamped her foot. "Well it worked when I designed the avatar, but now it doesn't match at all!"

With a hesitant nod, Asuna navigated her [Offer To] dialogue box, and deposited her new [Name Tag]. Before she could click [Accept], however, there was something else Asuna had to address.

"This much money, isn't it too much?"

It was tempting, but in the first place, she had been motivated by her sense of morality, and even if it turned out weird, it would be a little sad to quickly abandon that.

"You're stupidly honest, huh?" The little girl replied.

"Hauh?" Asuna asked in amazement. Because, without any exaggeration, and not just from her pride, but speaking objectively, that was the first time in her whole life that someone had called her stupid even obliquely.

"Well, it's not like I hate that, since it's cute in its own way." The girl mischievously added. "Still, if you won't except that kind of direct equivalent exchange-" The little girl paused.

There was an uncomfortable feeling. Asuna met the girl's eyes. Just like that albino appearance suggested, they were a pure red color. However, it wasn't the color that made Asuna feel uncomfortable. It was the way it felt like they weren't looking at here, but rather, looking through her to the reading being displayed on a scale that was measuring her in some way.

And then that strange pressure was gone, because the girl was smiling with her eyes closed. "In exchange, let's grind the [Circuit Activate] quests together, okay?"

The [Circuit Activation] quest tree—

To begin with, the mobs directly outside the [Starting City] offered only a pittance of Col, XP, and the items were something you could call [Just Garbage] instead of [Vendor Trash]. The reason for this was that the boar mobs were easy to defeat. They were designed as sacrifices for the players to practice their [Sword Skills] on, rather than as anything you'd call a serious opponent. From a gameplay perspective, you'd have to be a total noob to lose even a single HP to one.

Compared to that, the quests inside the [Starting City] had the same logic. Rather than challenging the player to a game, they were simply tutorials to teach players how to navigate all the menus. From there, rather than teaching how to use basic combat skills with the [System Assist], the quests in-city taught when and how the non-combat support skills like [Cook] and [Haggle] could be used. Since they were easy by design, naturally the reward was always a pittance. Because they were intended to teach everyone how to play, they were exempt from the competitive nature of regular quests as well. Rather than getting locked while a player performed them, these kinds of quests were available to every player.

However, a caveat was introduced with the [Thaumatergy Patch]. That caveat was the category of quests that were bunched together and referred to as [Circuit Activation]. They were offered by many sage-like and wisdom-type characters all over the city, and each one was different in the details, but the general arc of the quest was always the same. After some introductory dialogue, and perhaps a perfunctory fetchquest as a subplot, the player had a temporary [Spell] added. It was unusual because you could rename it whenever you wanted, unlike a [Skill], but the default was [Circuit Activation].

The result of using the skill was turning on your MP bar.

However, compared to using the [System Assist] to activate a [Combat Skill], the difficulty of even synchronizing with [System Assist] was three times greater in [Circuit Activation]. Even with the [System Assist] reaching into the player's brain and forcing the correct hypnotic state of mind on the player using the NerveGear's interference, the Player couldn't resist the assistance at all or the skill would fail. They had to completely accept the hypnotism, and once there, strongly imagine a metaphor like a switch flipping or a gun firing.

The difference between each version of the [Circuit Activation] Quest was always the language and metaphor that the quest-giver used to describe the situation to the player. Some were monk-like, some were gypsies sitting in a smokey haze, some were cold academics like a wizard from a fantasy novel, but each one explained it in a different way, explicitly so that there would be "something for everyone", so that every player could find the best fit to their own mentality.

Well, that meant, the chance of failure was really high. Even if you sincerely did your best and gave it your all, the probability of receiving the [Congratulations!] dialogue box at the end was still only 10%. Well, it had been closer to 1% during the first few days, according to rumors, but the rumors continued on to say that those quests had been continuously patched, so the success rate had been incrementally going up.

But, if you sincerely tried, the game could tell. So, rather than receiving the normal [Quest Failed!] message, instead you would get the [Bad Luck! Quest Failed!] dialogue box. In that case, you would receive an appropriate consolation prize of Col and XP. Well, if you were just half-heartedly farming them the game could also tell that, too, and would even deliver a penalty of severe HP damage in the case of a player who put in zero effort. Therefore honestly trying to complete it each and every time was mandatory.

—Compared to field mobs, the [Consolation Prize] was appropriate for a second or third level character.

"I see." Asuna nodded when Ilya finished her explanation. "So the [Circuit Activation] quests are the safest and quickest way to level up right at the beginning."

"That's right!" Ilya nodded, smiling back as she skipped ahead. "Since you only fail horribly and die from your own laziness, you can't blame anyone but yourself if your brain gets melted."

"…These quests, they can't really kill you, can they?" Asuna hesitated to ask. Because she had paused before asking that question, it was therefore necessary for her to jog to catch up to Ilya again.

Ilya hummed. "Maybe they do~!" With that sort of carefree sing-song, she looked up at the other girl walking beside her. Well, even if Asuna was looking a little sick, Ilya's teasing was a kindness in its own way. After all, hadn't the [Death Game] explicitly included Thaumaturgy in the [Rule of Death] during Kayaba's announcement? So it was really in her interest that Ilya properly impress the danger on her, wasn't it? Ilya nodded to herself, impressed with her own benevolence.

Asuna nodded back, and mentally readied herself. "So, where do we start?"

"Right here!" Ilya announced. Since she had already decided on the most appropriate one right before she had even begun her explanation, she hadn't wasted any time and multi-tasked by leading Asuna while talking.

It was like an [Item Shop] from a game that uniquely fused the horror and RPG genres.

The room was long and narrow with a low ceiling, and haphazard shelves that weren't parallel at all jutted across each other. The shelves were covered in strange and macabre things, like a whole entire wall full of [Dead Reptiles in Formaldehyde], while beside it were rows and rows of [Strange Books], and further along was [Mushroom Cross Sections Between Glass Plates], and abruptly the theme switched from biology to geology with a shelf full of [geodes]. Ilya's natural sense as someone who consumed a lot of appropriate media was that it should all have been dusty and poorly lit, but although it was dark, it was ascetically clean. Frankly speaking, that touch made it seem more professional, which was terrifying in its own way.

It was a pretty good workshop, so Ilya dragged Asuna along while the taller girl's head whipped back and forth as she queasily took in every sight.

"Hey gramps!" Ilya shouted.

The NPC looked up from where he had been lounging behind the desk, closing the inscrutable ancient tome that he read as his idle animation. "Can I help you?" He asked.

Ilya waited while Asuna examined the NPC. Since she had already seen him so many times, he wasn't that novel, but she still thought he had a good character design.

The guy was impossibly old. His skin was like parchment that had been dried out in the desert sun, but his complexion was pale. Even the liver spots on his perfectly bald head were pale. Watery green eyes peeked out of drooping eyes from behind thick square-framed glasses. Despite that, they were still sharp, without any cataracts at all. Even his hooked nose was wrinkled, and his ears were almost comically tiny. His hands were like eagle talons, long, thin, dried-out fingers splayed from rough hands, sticking out of the heavy black robes that were draped over his formal shirt. His tie was striped gold and crimson.

Asuna looked from the NPC, to Ilya, and back again.

Ilya nudged Asuna, and then gestured impatiently at the NPC with her head.

"O-oh! Right!" Saying that, Asuna turned to the NPC waiting with the appearance of patience for one of them to address him. "Hello." She began, bowing formally. "My name is [Asuna]. What's yours?"

Ilya sighed, even as the NPC replied, "My name is [Ancient Harry]." Since one of the [Introduction] dialogue paths was completed, a holographic menu popped into existence in front of him.

"Just navigate the menu." Ilya said, pointing at the floating [Item Vendor] menu in front of the man. It listed three options. [Buy] and [Sell] were both obvious, but compared to that, the meaning of [?] was deliberately obscure.

With an unsure glance to Ilya, Asuna simply pushed the [?] button. Ilya felt like she wasn't grateful enough that Ilya had helped her successfully circumvent one of the infamously unskippable quest prompt dialogues. In that case, they would have had to sit through the same content that Ilya had explained to Asuna on the way over, buried under dialogue that was intended to render the content of the message "in character" or something. This was doubly serious because the extraordinary length of the dialogue was acknowledged as the cost of starting this quest, in lieu of a nested fetch quest. Truly, Asuna should be feel so fortunate that someone like Ilya who could substitute all inputs just by throwing her power around, was on Asuna's side. Of course, the fact that Ilya hadn't explained any of this to Asuna, who had no idea what she should have been grateful for in the first place, that wasn't even acknowledged by that girl.

"-So, even so, you wish to open your soul to the grand truth?" The old man said, which sounded like a non-sequitur to Asuna because Ilya had brilliantly allowed them to skip the set-up speech.

With another hesitant glance at Ilya, Asuna looked back at the old man. "Yes?" she said. Well, even though it was pronounced like a question, the NPC accepted it with a nod expressing 'I see' as if Asuna had made a confident declaration.

"Very well." The old man said. "Then, if you are willing to walk with death beside you, you can definitely travel towards the Root."

Asuna had a confused expression as she mumbled "sure", but even after hearing him say that multiple times, Ilya still frowned a little bit at the unnecessary precision of detail that Kayaba had put in the simulation.

Asuna blinked at the [Update!] announcement that appeared hovering before her. Carefully she clicked the only button underneath it, labeled [Ok], and it auto-navigated from her base menu and down, the cursor stopping on a new tab. Underneath the [Skills] submenu, a new option had been inserted, called [Spells]. Asuna clicked it open, and in the completely empty list without any upper limit, there it was-

[Circuit Activation].

Rather than having to equip it from the [Known Skills] list onto the [Active Skills] list, there was just a button next to it that said [Inactive]. With an encouraging nod from Ilya, Asuna pushed the button and it toggled to [Active].

Asuna didn't feel any different, so she asked, "Now what?"

Ilya hummed. "I know you already know how to use the [System Assist] to activate [Sword Skills], so for now, why don't you put the spell [Circuit Activation] in the front of your mind and imaging it switching from [off] to [on] somehow?"

Asuna raised an eyebrow. "Just do it somehow, huh?"

Ilya frowned. "I already said it should be something unique to you, so pick a good image." While the other girl closed her eyes to start thinking, she casually jumped up to sit on the counter in front of [Ancient Harry].

Asuna closed her eyes, breathing in and then letting it out slowly, even though that was strictly meaningless inside the game. An image- trapped in this [Death Game], she had decided it was better to live brightly, even if she burned up, rather than to simply let herself slowly dissolve into meaninglessness while surviving. Just like she had imagined earlier that day, she would rather be a meteor. Yes- Asuna sank into herself, letting everything fall away, all sensory data guided from her mind with help from the [System Assist]. Her breathing and heartbeat, even outside the game, were both regulated and slowed as she entered the meditative state. Her thoughts quieted as she imagined herself as a simple lump of silicate rock floating through space. [Asuna], or rather, "the girl named Yuuki Asuna", submerged her identity in that simple image. Definitely she received help from the computer wrapped around her head, but she was a genius at accepting the [System Assist], much like someone who could instantly balance on a bicycle could be called a "genius bike rider".

[Asuna the Comet] was her concept of existence. And then-

From a comet's perspective it wasn't moving, but compared to the Earth, the relative motion was really large. So, crashing into the atmosphere was practically instantaneous. Air friction instantly boiled off all ice layers and the rocks burned. The [Comet] was ignited into a [Meteor]. The nature was flipped in a [Flash] just like a flash of light like a flash of heat. It was fire it was light so bright it was pressure it was blazing hot it was burning it was radiation it was light it was pain it was PAIN-"

With a gasp, Asuna's eyes snapped open, and she collapsed to her knees, gripping the counter of the [Desk] so tightly that it displayed the [Immortal Object] dialogue. She shivered, she pulsed, she would have been sweating profusely from every pore if the game simulated that.

"Wow!" Ilya said, exited. "On the first try! That's really impressive!" Ilya's smile was complicated. Although she truly was impressed at someone that already had the mental discipline to achieve activation on the first try, even with the [System Assist], there was a bitterness to that smile.

Their plan had been simple. After interfering in many battles where people were losing, Shirou had decided it would be more efficient to keep unsuited people from fighting. Therefore, whenever he saved someone from imminent danger of [Death from zero HP], he advised them to grind the [Circuit Activation] quest as a fast way to gain XP. Meanwhile, Ilya would act as a sort of [Quest Meta-Guide] inside the city, receiving the people that Shirou sent into the [Starting City]. Well, honestly, his reasoning had been more like, "Since Ilya always makes the delicate conversations worse, I might as well put her in a [Safe Zone] where killing each other is literally impossible", but that part had not been explained to his sister. Conversely, the novelty of [Saving People] had worn off after less than three hours for Ilya, because in the typical situation of helping people that had started a fight they couldn't actually handle, the two of them were usually treated like kill-stealers, not saviors. It was annoying that she couldn't be right beside him, but on the other hand, the constant PMs back and forth was romantic in its own way. And, since the so-called "exploit" of the [Circuit Activation Quests] was already well-known, she could usually get by with an absolute minimum of effort without any negative consequence.

Well, the complexity of Ilya's smile was lost on Asuna, who was trembling so severely it was like she was having a seizure. "Why does it hurt so badly?" She managed to ask. "Why doesn't the pain stop!?"

"Ah", Ilya lightly explained, "That's just the sensation of your [Circuits] opening up. Since it's like exercising muscles you've never used before, the pain is really severe until you get them into a normal state." Ilya nodded lightly. "For now, you can complete the quest by successfully turning them back off, and the more times you switch them, the less it will hurt." To a limit, Ilya didn't say. There was always a minimum amount of pain with circuits, but somehow saying so always seemed to discourage people, so she just left that part off the speech now.

Asuna nodded with an unsteady, jerky motion, and closed her eyes, her face screwing shut with tension as she concentrated.

Yes, what was definitely unexpected in their clever plan, was how many people could [Complete] the quest. Actual possession of Circuits was vanishingly rare in the normal population. As a basic rule, if someone didn't actively promote the appearance of magic circuits in their offspring, then their child wouldn't have magic circuits. Many kinds of exceptions existed, but those were just that: exceptions, usually rooted in some fact or condition that made the basic rule more complex.

So what bothered Ilya was that, in a [Virtual Reality] where Kayaba had already demonstrated great precision as a Magic User, why had he overturned such a basic rule? In [Sword Art Online], the average success rate of any given [Circuit Activation] quest was 10%. If someone failed, they could try again, and again, and again, until eventually they activated their Circuits. Rather than people continuously grinding the quest until the boredom of repetition overcame the fear of dying like the two of them had expected, everyone succeeded after enough attempts. Any exception to "everyone" was a result of unlucky statistics needing more attempts; she hadn't heard of even one person receiving a dialogue box that indicated [You don't have Magic Circuits]. Well, "Berserkah" had a certain reputation during the beta, but with that out of the way, Argo's information shouldn't be exorbitantly expensive anymore, so that avenue of research became available.

Ilya kicked her legs idly, nodding and frowning to herself as she thought.

Finally, she smiled down as Asuna's shoulders collapsed, the taller girl relaxing as she managed to close her Circuits. "Congratulations!" Ilya said with a perky voice, and Asuna looked up with a half-hearted smile. The floating dialogue box that announced [Congratulations! Quest Complete!] verified what Ilya thought. With a trembling sigh, Asuna stood up. She opened her mouth to speak to Ilya, but-

"It was a painful step, but you've completed the first step on the path towards the truth." The NPC [Ancient Harry] began his scripted monologue to someone that completed the quest. "Practice diligently and your new legs will support you without trembling. And then—"

"So what are you going to do now?" Ilya asked, interrupting the programmed speech. When Asuna glanced at the NPC, Ilya just frowned imperiously, as if to say, 'just ignore him and talk to me instead'.

Asuna glanced over one more time, but finally said. "I- I don't want to stay in one place without moving, so, I thought I would go fight."

"Hmm." Ilya nodded. Shirou would probably try to talk her into being safe, but that sounded kind of annoying, and anyway Ilya was getting a little bored. So, with quick motions, she navigated her menu.

Asuna looked down at the dialogue box that appeared before her.

[Accept Friend Request From: "Von Ilya"?]

Asuna's gaze simply slid up to meet the eyes of the little girl sitting on the counter in front of her, who instantly started pouting for some reason. "What?" The girl demanded. "If you have any complaints about my name, I absolutely won't entertain them."

Asuna just sighed and let it go, hesitating for a moment before clicking the button [Yes]. Carefully, she stood up, and turned to walk out the door.

"Hey", Ilya called out from behind her, "He will probably scold me if I didn't say anything, so I will finish by saying just this: don't get killed like an idiot, alright?"

Asuna paused, frowning at such a blunt and morbid way of asking, but at the same time, appreciating the sentiment of someone who didn't want to hold her back. Without turning to look back the way she came, Asuna simply replied, "I will definitely survive". No, rather than a reply to Ilya, it was announcing her goal to the [World]. Just like that, Asuna walked out the door before Ilya could get another word in.

Ilya sighed, and jumped off the counter. "I guess I'll go bother Shirou." She decided for herself, and she also chased after the girl.

"...And with that inside you, you can definitely obtain Truth." Even though no-one was listening, the NPC called [Ancient Harry] finished his programmed speech with a solemn nod. So saying, he picked up his book and returned to his idle animation, waiting for the next person to walk in the door.


	4. 2:2 Shirou and Kibaou

In the time since the game began, he had leveled up six times. Including the first level he had started with, that meant his level was seven. In the three weeks since the beginning of the game, he had leveled up six times; compared to the category of people who played conservatively near the [Starting City] and the exploring players who played aggressively, he was in the middle. Many in the aggressive category were already around the informal [Level Cap] of 10. Because the level of the monsters on the first floor peaked around eight or nine with special monsters only reaching ten, the exponential nature of the XP curve made climbing past level 10 extremely difficult. Not only did it require a relatively huge number of fights to gather sufficient XP, but the limited spawn rate meant that the finite number of monsters of a high enough level had to be split among all the aggressive-style players.

Because he was unconcerned with personal gain, he didn't particularly try to defeat monsters. So, despite playing with no margin of safety, despite spending more time in the field than anyone, despite participating in a huge number of battles, his level was not too great. His objective wasn't leveling up. It was saving as many people as possible.

At every level up, a total of five [stat points] were awarded to the player. They could be distributed between either of only two stats: [STR], for strength or muscle power, and [AGI], for dexterity or agility. Therefore, for the six levels he had acquired, he had a total of 30 [stat points] to distribute between the two scores.

He had put them all in [AGI].

The reason was simple. The speed at which a player could move in the field was more dependent on [AGI] than it was on [STR]. Combined with the [Run] skill, it meant that he had the maximum possible mobility for his level. Since this game didn't have an endurance mechanic, he could grind the [Run] skill simply by dashing everywhere at top speed. The higher his mobility was, the faster he could move towards a problem, and the faster he could move on to the next one. Practically speaking, running speed was the upper limit on how many people he could save.

Since there was an incremental movement penalty for inventory weight, he minimized what he was carrying as much as possible. The penalty was not trivial for someone with a [STR] parameter as low as his. Even armor was removed. The only things he had equipped were the light-weight [White Jumpsuit] item and the [Iron Curved Sword].

And a [Red Scarf]. Ilya had absolutely insisted, and although it was kind of foolish, it was not something he had resisted with any actual effort.

Yes, the only thing that mattered was getting there as quickly as possible.

He ran, sprinting through the grassy field on the edge of dark woods. Four players were fighting, intermingled with a pack of [Lesser Dark Wolves]. They were jet-black, shaped like timber wolves, with glowing red eyes. There were five wolves, although even as he watched, the massed damage of the group reduced the number to four.

Of those four players, there was a staff-using tall and thin guy of around 20 years, a fat adult straight sword user, and a spear user who couldn't have been out of middle school. The last player, who was dealing the most damage, could be described as the same time as an older version of Shirou: a red-haired one-handed curved sword user. The straight sword user and the spear user were unremarkable in skill. The curved sword player was talented. He was dealing as much damage as the other two combined.

However, that meant that as a product of the [Hate] or [Aggro] mechanic that Ilya had explained, the remaining wolves would focus their attacks on him. Since none of these players had figured out the similarly-explained [Tank] role, the wolves continued to mass their attacks on the curved-sword player. He couldn't avoid all the attacks, so he was taking damage.

That wasn't a problem, because the staff-using player was someone that had chosen to play a [Mage], and had a healing spell. Healing magic was easy, but expensive. Or rather, it was simply pouring prana into someone and restoring their body to the natural state of being unharmed. The foundation of injury healing magecraft was creating replacement flesh and inserting it into the wound. Accelerating the natural healing rate, or even reversing effects to undo injuries, both were possible; but those methods were generally inferior. It bothered Shirou. Because it was just a game, healing was as simple as just changing the number labeled [HP]. There was no wound system to simulate getting ripped open. There was no pain, there was no trauma; even something that reduced your health to 1% wouldn't impede your motions. Simply put, getting your guts blown out and your legs smashed couldn't happen.

But that was the problem. Because people thought healing magic was easy, they used it easily. The gain from being better at healing magic was higher effectiveness, so the numerical benefit to [HP] would go up, but the real benefit was improving the efficiency. The better someone was at healing magic, the less flesh they had to replace because the amount was more precise, with less overlap. The less effort they put into creating it. The less prana evaporated while casting it. All of those things improved the efficiency.

Even if this was a player with natural talent at healing, even with these simplified virtual bodies reducing the challenge, they were still a novice. Repeated healing was simply beyond their limits. And magecraft beyond your limits carried a penalty. That, at least, was something Kayaba Akihiko had considered.

So Shirou charged forward, and when the Staff-using player closed his eyes to prepare one more healing spell, he interfered. He jumped, smashed to a landing right in front of him, and grabbed his staff. Startled, the player opened his eyes, breath caught, his aria interrupted. His spell wasn't interrupted, it was instead prevented from even starting up.

Shirou had made it in time. He was relieved. "Stop casting." He ordered.

"Hey!" Shouted the curved-sword user. "What's the big idea?" He pointed, accusing Shirou.

In response, Shirou dashed towards him, accelerating to his top speed. His sword was drawn. He imagined the [System Trigger] and pulled it. Without breaking stride, he launched the [Reaver] from a running start.

The other red-head had only a moment to step back in confusion before Shirou was past him, digging the last third of the sword in his hand into the shoulder of the [Lesser Dark Wolf] and cleanly pulling it through before striking the mandatory pose at the end of the [Sword Skill].

He held the pose. It wasn't to look cool. Simply, the internal algorithms of the monster characters weren't allowed to assess the skills of a player, so the only way they were allowed to determine when the cool-down period was over was when the player moved. By freezing in place, he could fool the game engine into thinking he was still vulnerable.

It wasn't true of all monsters, but evil-type monsters like [Lesser Dark Wolves] gave a bonus for the cool-down when dynamically calculating that [Hate] value. This was the best way to draw their attacks.

Of the four enemies, the one he had slashed was behind him. Its attack on the curved-sword user was interrupted and it couldn't turn around quickly enough. If he was lucky, that guy would recover his composure enough to finish it off.

The second wolf was on the far side of the spear-user. It wasn't a problem.

Three and four were. They were flanking him from approximately the nine and one o'clock directions. Since he was standing with his right side forward with his right arm extended in a wide stance, they were both in his visual field. The enemy at nine was three meters away, and at one was only two meters away. They would both use the [Short-Range Lunge]. The one at three would aim at his exposed throat, and at one would aim at his armpit, seeking to rip open the artery there. Their attack patterns were programmed like real wolves: their general approach was to cripple and then kill prey, rather than fighting.

They both lunged.

There wasn't an appropriate [Sword Skill]. It wasn't a problem.

When the closer one in front of him lunged, he stepped forward into a wider stance with his front foot, dropping down closer to the ground, and swung his sword out to his side and down, before whipping it back across in front of him upwards.

Because it was a clean and deep attack across the throat, it was assessed as a [Critical Hit], and the enemy was forced all the way into the red zone from max HP. Of course, it was still moving forward, so Shirou also continued to move forward, bringing his rear left foot closer and stepping out with his right foot forcing himself upright. At the same time his left arm reached out, grabbing at the wolf. Just like a player could accelerate their own [Sword Art] by reinforcing it, he accelerated the [Lesser Dark Wolf] along its own direction. It was impossible to actually [grab] it, but simply by trying to occupy the same space as it, the [Clash Detection] system was activated and the two parties were pushed apart by the physics engine. Also a [Harassment Warning] popped up, but that wasn't important.

The result was that wolf at nine slammed into the one he'd attacked and then pushed, even as he was pushed back away from them both. It didn't deal any damage to the other wolf, but its attack was cancelled, and he was no longer flanked.

Shirou glanced around, assessing the situation.

The young spear-user and the fat one-handed sword user were just staring, but the curved-sword user had finished off the first wolf. Good.

"What the hell are you doing?" He demanded. But, even though he was shouting, he still fired off another sword skill, killing the wolf that Shirou had cut across the throat.

Shirou didn't answer him, but instead, pointed at the staff-user. "Check your HP." He side-stepped to avoid another lunge.

Confused, the staff-user did. His pinched face paled as he blanched, doing a double take as he looked at the bar in the corner of his vision. "W-what?" Rather than a question, it was more like an expression of denial. "Red?" His voice was strangled.

"Magecraft beyond your limits has a price." Shirou explained. "If you reach beyond your limits, you can accomplish the spell, but you'll pay with your body."

It was an easy mistake to make. If you didn't take any attacks, you wouldn't think you were taking damage. The pain of your body getting ripped up would be a clue, but compared to the pain of circulating prana through your circuits, it would be "more of the same". Since magecraft was the only source of pain in the game system, it was hard to distinguish between the [normal pain] of performing magecraft and the [exceptional pain] of exceeding your limits. And someone focused on casting, on ignoring that pain, tended to forget to check their HP bar.

Yes, it was true that there was no wound system, there was no trauma, there was no way to get your guts ripped open. But, since those things didn't exist, a player lacked the natural warning systems of the human body that allowed a magus to determine their limits. Frankly speaking, that was a bug in the game.

Shirou had already seen three people die that way in front of him. The first time, he hadn't understood what was happening. The second time, he diagnosed it too late. The third time, he hadn't responded quickly enough to prevent it. But this time he was fast enough. It wasn't just that this virtual body was faster. More importantly, the speed and precision of his judgement had also improved. This time, he saved someone.

He smiled.

"Bastard!" The curved-sword guy said, splitting his attention between the two remaining wolves and this white interloper. "What the hell are you smiling at?"

"I'm glad you didn't die." Shirou honestly replied, looking at the staff-user.

With a swallow, the staff-user stepped back. What little color he had regained immediately fled his face, making him look even more like a skeleton. "Me too." He said.

"Can we focus!?" Shouted the spear-user, who was looking frazzled and worried as he fought one of the two remaining wolves. They were locked in stalemate; the player wasn't willing to commit enough to use a powerful enough [Sword Skill] to accomplish anything because of the fear of the opening at the end. By comparison, he was skilled enough to read the obvious signs of the attacks and dodge when the wolf [Lunged]. But, if you compared the mental endurance of a human to the mental endurance of a computer, the long-term outcome of such a stalemate was obvious.

"Cuvie!" The curved sword user said. He didn't look, choosing instead to keep his glower shifting between the wolf and Shirou. "Help him!"

"Right!" The fat straight-sword user launched his own skill at the back of the wolf in front of the spear-user, who was apparently named Cuvie. When it turned, snarling at him, Cuvie the spear-user took that chance to also [Back Attack] the wolf, finishing it.

"From now on, be sure to watch your HP bar." Shirou scolded the novice magus one more time, and scanned the horizon. It was getting late. Soon the [Night Bears] would start to spawn.

Without waiting for acknowledgement or thanks, Shirou simply turned and ran off.

"Wait!" The curved-sword user shouted. "I still have questions for you!"


	5. 2:3 The Deal

"Good afternoon, Sempai." Even though she knew he wouldn't respond, she still greeted him when she returned home every afternoon.

Matou Sakura smiled at the boy laying peacefully in the futon. He was dressed in simple pajamas and his head rested on a pillow. His hands were folded over his chest like he was greatly content. How many times had she leaned over his restful form like this? It was like he was a sleeping prince, unconcerned by the world as he dreamed.

Of course, her fantasy of everyday normalcy was challenged by the smooth plastic helmet that engulfed his head. Even if she kissed her prince, he would not awake from this sleep. No, even if it was an enchanted sleep, she would have been able to devour the curse. She would have been happy to use what had been forced upon her if it would have helped him. But, it wasn't an enchantment. It was something else, something rooted in a different mystery, of high technology.

If an outsider were to look at her, they would say she was choosing to smile instead of crying.

And even this would be taken from her.

Fuji-nee meant well, and in one of those rare moments of understanding, she had even apologized to Sakura. But, she had put her foot down, acting like a proper adult when it mattered. Shirou and Ilya needed constant observation and care, of the kind all comatose patients required. She wouldn't allow one of her students to sacrifice her school life to be their nurse. So, even if it was cruel in the short term, she had chosen the kinder path of sending them out of Sakura's sight where she wouldn't be tempted every day to throw away her own education and nurse them.

Soon, these two would be transferred to a city hospital in far-away Tokyo. Just like everyone else that had been trapped in the game. Soon, Sempai would be taken away from her.

The door slid open.

"Sakura."

"Tohsaka-sempai." She murmured back.

There was a pause, a moment of frozen hesitation, and then the other girl stepped into the room. She had a bag in her hands. The same bag she had already used several times.

However, rather than kneeling beside Sempai, instead the other girl walked across the room and slid the partition the rest of the way open to kneel beside Ilya.

"Tohsaka-sempai?"

The other girl grunted in a very unfeminine way. "That big lug doesn't even notice, and we're running out of time. So even if it's annoying, I'm going to try contacting Ilya instead."

So saying, the other girl opened the bag.

Five gems, each corresponding to a different of the five elements. They were placed in a pentagon around the girl. Five candles were placed on each gem, and lit. A pentagram of copper wire was laid around the gems. Activated by the flame, the gems would leak their colored prana, which would be picked up by the wire and propagated like a circuit.

A basic bounded field, designed to isolate the inside from the outside by creating interference that would sweep up prana. Because it could be easily circumvented or overwhelmed, in addition to being easy to detect, it was something that was designed as a ritual rather than a protection. Since it sweeped up the inside as well as the outside, it had an added bonus of not only isolating the inside of the circle, but also continuously cleaning it so that a lingering spell wouldn't unexpectedly interact with a new spell. The spell would last until the reserve of prana in the gems was spent, and then collapse.

The goal of the spell was simple: Tohsaka Rin was going to establish telepathic contact with someone right next to her. Since telepathic contact was less reliable and harder to understand than spoken conversation, using it on someone right beside you was normally pointless. But this was a special circumstance, where even though they were right beside her, they could never hear her words nor respond to them. So even if it mental transmission was inferior to spoken conversation as a rule, this was the exceptional circumstance where normal speech was impossible.

Rin was someone that measured her chances of success and if they were too low, then she wouldn't even try. So something like computer-hacking into the clouds were the tubes of data transmitted into the helmet was completely discarded. In the first place she didn't even know where the cloud was; only that it definitely wasn't in the sky. She had re-affirmed her grudge with Issei after that conversation.

As a result, this ritual method was preferred. The only downside was that Shirou was a bonehead who didn't even notice that she was trying to reach him. Everyone was worried and he was so ungrateful he didn't even notice...! it made her angry.

"Tohsaka-sempai." Sakura muttered, reproachful.

She had been muttering. With a slight blush, she cleared her throat and cleared her mind. The last ritual tools were removed from the bag. First was the rubber constriction band. Second was the syringe.

Ilya's arm was removed from the futon and the sleeve was rolled up. The band was tied around her arm above the elbow.

A syringe, filled with a pale yellow fluid. In the past it had been Rin's blood, but refinement and processing had removed the cells and platelets; now it was just plasma. It was the ritual medium to form a temporary contract so that she could pass her od into Ilya. Compared to other rituals the amount of od that could be transferred in this way was trivial, but only a tiny amount was needed.

Rin opened her circuits and gathered mana. "Form the frame. Shape the Gate. Open the Pass." Rin spoke softly, but with clear annunciation. The words of the aria were used by the magus to convince themselves what they were doing was possible. As she spoke, the prana inside her was carefully transmitted into the syringe and saturated into her plasma.

Carefully Rin placed the syringe over the exposed vein, and depressed the stopper. Her blood plasma, her prana, was injected into Ilya's body.

"Ich Falle Durch." Rin focused her mind, and fell into the syringe, through the needle, and entered Ilya.

It was just a tiny drop of prana. It dissipated, it circulated, it passed in. Inside the medium, it wouldn't evaporate, but one, two, three heartbeats, it passed into the heart, it circulated to the lungs and was exposed as the atmosphere was drawn across it. Four, five, six. The heart beat again, again, again. The prana circulated, it became a thin film spread across the inside of Ilya.

Rin breathed out, and on the seventh heart beat, she flicked her Circuits back on.

It was an illusion space.

Rin's body was a translucent mass threaded through with spooled wires. Inside her arm was a mass of discolored wires inlaid, her Crest. As her heart beat, the translucency faded. Her body became less and less clear, more solid, until after seven beats she stood whole. It was the thought of a moment, and she was clad in her classic appearance, stockings, skirt and shirt. Remaining naked was unnecessary, and she had no desire to expose herself to Ilya's mocking.

There was a glass wall before her. It wasn't transparent, but it wasn't perfectly dark. Light filtered through like it was glazed, a hazy crystal. But it was perfectly smooth, a shell shaped like a raindrop that tapered into infinite thinness that extended off into the distance. It was like an alchemist's flask.

There were numbers on the shell. In the shell. Through the shell. It was a work of magecraft of numbers. It was a materialization of mystery described only with mathematical operations. It was something she couldn't comprehend. It wasn't equations, it was the solutions that resulted from solving the equations, the special case that applied only to Ilya.

It melted.

Glass was a solidified liquid. That wasn't a contradiction. That was a description of the physical state. It was amorphous, it was non-crystalline, it was composition without organization or form, just wad of molecules.

But this shell that looked like glass was not glass. It was magecraft.

So something that could melt it into formlessness was simply throwing power around until it lost its form. It was inefficient. It was inelegant. But that brutal straight-forwardness was how the Einzbern accomplished their mysteries.

Even though she was also an illusion, even though she had also condensed a form around her circuits, even though she also imagined clothing, the sheer volume of prana that Ilya circulated illuminated her from within.

"Rin!" Ilya greeted.

"Ilya." Rin coolly replied.

"So I guess you finally stopped procrastinating and decided to do something, huh?" Ilya cheerfully asked.

"Hey!" Rin protested. "I don't want to hear that from someone that didn't even try in the first place!"

"But you don't deny procrastinating... that actually surprises me." Ilya said, frowning as she tapped her lip with one finger. "And disappoints me a little, to be honest."

Rin frowned, and then smiled. It would have been something you could have called a sweet smile, if it wasn't something that made you nervous just looking at it. "It's just a matter of priorities. Since we couldn't reach the boy, in the end we compromised and just reached for the unfavorite girl."

"Guh." Ilya frowned, unwilling to admit that had cut. However, she was the kind to always try and return the insult. "That's just your ego. From his perspective the only voice worth hearing is mine."

Compared to the watery blood plasma that touched it, what spilled out of that shell was definitely oil. The result of mixing water and oil is a common expression: they don't.

Even if it was an illusion, Rin gritted her teeth, clenched her fist, and snarled. But, rather than saying anything, she sighed, unclenched her fist, and relaxed her jaw. "Ilya-chan," she asked, "Shirou and you are both fine, right?"

Ilya mumbled agreement, and nodded. "Yeah, but Shirou is boring. All he does is run around saving people from death."

Rin opened her mouth, and then closed it again, before finally she spoke. "Ilya... it's a video game. People don't die for real."

Ilya raised an eyebrow. "There's a limit to showing off your ignorance, Rin-chan. Didn't you see the announcement? If we die in the game, he kills us in real life." Ilya shook her head and went, 'tsk tsk tsk' before she spoke again. "Even if following the internet news is impossible for you, you should at least be able to watch TV over Tiger's shoulder. More than three hundred people have died that way, you know?"

Once more, Rin paused.

Then she spoke. "Ilya, that's not true." She squarely met Ilya's confused glance. "Since the beginning, only the two hundred people that had the helmet pulled off their head died. No one has died in weeks."

"Eh?" Ilya's response was more like a placeholder to buy her time while she thought. "From the inside, if your HP goes to zero, you're never seen again." She mused. "Since you're isolated, it could just look like you're dead to everyone around you."

Rin sighed. "Well, there was a huge uproar when the incident started, but Argus has promised to get everyone out safely, and the government promises to find and punish the ones the ones that did it every time the Diet has a press conference."

Ilya considered that. Rather than responding, when she did speak, it was more like she was talking to herself. "I think that I hadn't realized until now how thoroughly he isolated us."

"Eh?" Rin said. "You mean you know who did it?"

Ilya blinked, opening her mouth, before she closed it again. She glanced down and to the left, before moving her hand, flicking at the air, like she was pushing around a paper that Rin couldn't see. "Rin," she said, "I think I'm going to have to call you back."

Ilya flicked her Circuit off, ignoring Rin's confused question. She closed her eyes and breathed in. Even if it was virtual, even if it was a habit that had nothing to do with actually operating her lungs, it was still a helpful ritual. Then she breathed out and opened her eyes.

The message notification was still there.

[Private Message]  
[From: Kayaba Akihiko]

But when she was back in the virtual world of Aincrad, she didn't open it.

She wasn't sitting on her favorite bench in the southwest corner of the [Starting City].

No, she was floating in the sky. There was no ground beneath her, like she stood on a solidified block of air or a perfectly transparent plate of glass floating unsupported. Far below, the grasses on the field to the east of town fluttered on the wind like waves on the ocean.

And standing across from her, standing upright with his hands casually in the pockets of his white lab coat, was the god of this world, Kayaba Akihiko.

"Illyasviel von Einzbern." He said. His voice was flat, expressing neither concern nor anger. It wasn't a demand that she respond, or a greeting. Compared to that, he was mechanically going through the motions of beginning a conversation.

"Kayaba Akihiko." She responded. She kept her gaze flat on him, without backing down, without glancing aside, and without apologizing. Her eyes were defiant. Her mouth was pouting a little.

Kayaba was the one who glanced aside and down, putting his hand to his lips in a habitual gesture, and then pausing in something like surprise when he realized there wasn't a cigarette there.

Kiritsugu had gestured like that sometimes.

Kayaba sighed, putting his hand back in his coat pocket. "Since I didn't explicitly make it a rule that you aren't allowed to contact the outside world before now, it wouldn't be fair to punish you. Well, you didn't give away anything major, so it's not a problem." He paused, moving his head sideways slightly. "However, from this time forward, I am requiring that the isolation of this world remain perfect. Please don't do anything that will require retaliation."

Ilya cocked her head sideways. "Oh? And why should I comply with the demands of trash who would throw away the laws? There's no reason to obey someone that's destined to receive a Sealing Designation and be cursed as a Philosopher." Ilya sniffed, throwing her hair to her side. "What's stopping me from simply smashing through your Bounded Field and escaping?"

Kayaba smiled. Similarly to his greeting, it was more like someone moving their face in the appropriate manner rather than someone expressing emotion. "The Contract used to bind you in the World of Aincrad is magecraft at the same level as a Command Seal. A disciple of Makiri Zolgen tells you this."

Ilya's said only "oh," but it packed a depth of disgust and scorn into that soft syllable, as if she was sneering at someone who proudly called themselves a bug. Although he wasn't so insecure that his pride would be stung, Kayaba elaborated, primarily to allay her suspicions.

"I was merely a disciple who was taught magecraft. I lacked the necessary traits and alignments, so fortunately I could not become an apprentice that inherited his mysteries. From his perspective I was merely a tool to diagnose the flaws in his Line. I was only taught what was necessary for that reason."

Kayaba paused to let her digest that. "The direction of my research was mandated at correcting the flaws in his Line. From that perspective, I was freed from my duties when you destroyed my primary research subject." Kayaba smiled, a soft and ironic expression. "So from another perspective, I feel a certain appreciation because you removed an annoying task that burdened my own research."

After letting Ilya digest that for a few seconds, he spoke again. "This conversation is not proceeding the way I intended. In the first place, I would prefer not to start a fight that would compromise my experiment, let alone one I might not win. Putting my spellwork up against the magecraft of the Einzbern definitely counts as both."

"Oh?" Ilya said, with a devilish smile. "So, what are you offering to prevent such a fight, hmm?"

Kayaba smiled. This time the expression was slightly more authentic. "You are astute. So what I am offering is equivalent exchange. In exchange for sincerely playing my game and cooperating with the rules, I will sincerely cooperate with you." Kayaba blinked slowly, before meeting Ilya's gaze. "Let us begin negotiations."

Ilya cocked her head to the side. "Release me and Shirou and we won't report you."

Kayaba seriously considered it. "Unfortunately, the media attention you would receive in that scenario is too dangerous to me." He paused significantly. "Assuming we could even create a mutually acceptable Contract to appropriately bind us, and we were willing to trust the other party to not circumvent it." He shrugged.

Ilya tapped her lips. "Well, since I already know you aren't killing people inside the game, why shouldn't I tell everyone?"

Kayaba's voice was once again dead, without emotion. "The integrity of the [Fear of Death] is an absolute requirement. Please don't mistake my thrift with specimens as mercy." The coldness lessened as he spoke again. "However, since you already understand what it means to [Walk with Death] then I will exchange a guarantee that your experience in the holding tank would be pleasant, as long as you agree not to tell other players."

Ilya paused, considering, before finally she asked. "Why are you doing this?"

It was a ghost of a real smile that crossed Kayaba's face. "As I said during the [Launch], please consider that the main plot of the game [Sword Art Online]. It's bad form for the game designer to spoil the plot."

"Tch." Ilya responded. "You're no fun at all." She placed her hand on her hip. "So far I haven't heard anything that convinces me that I should cooperate with you."

Kayaba pulled his hand out of his pocket, and swiped at the air, exactly as if he were a player activating their menu. He navigated deep into a menu that Ilya couldn't see, moving quickly and confidently. With a final decisive peck of his pointer finger, data materialized around them.

There were time-dependent graphs that were continuously updating. There were bar charts that were comparing multiple values. There were functional diagrams or flow charts with awkward shapes like they'd been generated automatically.

They came into existence too fast for Ilya to understand them, but there were labels like [Circuit Capacity] on one of the bar charts, a Radar Chart labeled with [Elements], and a declining stacked line chart labeled [Od Quality]. All of data displays had [Illyasviel Von Einzbern] in their titles.

"My most developed skills as a magus lie in assessing the magical traits of others," Kayaba explained. "Things like determining the number and quality of Circuits is straightforward. I've even managed to develop numerical methods that can be implemented with high confidence using just the data from the NerveGear. Likewise, Elements and Sorcery Traits can be categorized, although I still require more empirical data before I can move those into a fully numerical regime."

Kayaba continued. "My magecraft allows me to quantify you. Your Circuits have been changed into the Lesser Grail. They've been forcibly cracked open to allow you to circulate the phantasmal entities called [Heroic Spirits] inside them in addition to simply sucking up [Mana]. But in exchange for housing those foreign souls inside your own soul, your own identify becomes flawed. And as those errors accumulate, your functionality as a human breaks down."

Kayaba paused for dramatic impact. "In short, I can tell your own Traits are obviously killing you."

Ilya did not move before she finally spoke. "So what." She said. "I already knew that. If anything, it just increases the urgency that I stop wasting time in your game."

"So what, huh." Kayaba said, musing to himself. Finally, he swiped at the menu that Ilya couldn't see, dismissing the holographic displays so they were once again standing alone. "Imagine if a soul was a computer program. When the Origin condenses and the soul is formed, that is analogous to the program compiling during fetal development. In that case, during compilation, many subroutines that define the individual human are constructed and then called. Physical things like the shape and functionality of the organs, the physical dimensions of height and length, and other genetic factors would be one type of subroutine that are called upon to define a human's form during their genesis."

"In that case, magecraft traits are another subroutine. The number of Circuits, the Elements they can express, even the natural quality are all automatically constructed during the condensation of the Origin. However, in the vast majority of humans, the subroutine is not called and the magical traits are not formed. So the values are defined, but because they aren't instantiated by the program, when you watch the code execute it's the same as if they didn't exist."

Kayaba nodded. "But in the case of a magus, then the routine is called and the Traits exist."

Ilya, who had already met magi who liked to brag about their research, was already losing patience. In her opinion, there were very few things even more boring them people who liked to talk about their work. "That's all very cute, but you still haven't actually said even one convincing thing."

"I am a computer programmer and a Numerologist." Kayaba announced. "Writing and debugging code is what I am best at. If your subroutine is flawed, then I can correct it. I can simply remove the self-destructive Trait from your soul."

"What you are offering is direct manipulation of the soul." Ilya's question was uncertain, not because she didn't understand, but because the magnitude of his claim amazed her. Certainly it was important that he could offer her something like salvation, but as a magus of the Einzbern, he was also offering Ilya something much more incredible. "With something like that, could you achieve materialization as well?" She frowned, mind whirling, before speaking again without giving him the change to say anything. "Or rather, it might be feasible to directly reverse dispersion, so the effect could be achieved differently."

Kayaba drew in a breath to speak, and then paused, frowning, as he considered her words, stopping himself from saying something to hasty without thinking about it properly. "I don't know." He honestly replied, rubbing his chin.

"We can work out the necessary details later. If transference becomes a necessary step, I will provide a flask and a workshop for you to coin a replacement vessel." Kayaba stuck his hand back in his pocket. "Since research would be required, I must caution that I can't guarantee a perfect outcome, but I promise my claims are true in principle."

Ilya did not respond.

Kayaba summed up his offer. "Sincerely play my [Death Game], and in exchange, I will provide you a full lifespan." For the first time, his smile was sincere. "More than that. If we cooperate, it might even be possible to recover the Third Magic."

Ilya opened her mouth, then closed it. Her expression was soft, distant, and vulnerable.

Kayaba Akihiko studied her for a moment. "As long as you do not disrupt the status quo, you can take as long as you like to consider my offer." He reached out from his coat again, and operated the menu in front of him.

A notification popped up in front of Ilya. It was a one-sided trade from the [GM] containing a [Teleport Crystal] that was pre-targeted to return her to the [Starting City].

"You have my contact information." Kayaba said, putting his hand back in his pocket. "Please feel free to [PM] me at any time." He turned, and walked four steps before stopping, with his back still towards Ilya. "Although I possess appropriate ruthlessness for a magus, I'm not someone who derives pleasure from cruelty. My offer is serious." With that, he operated the menu one more time, and the teleportation effect started up around him as he disappeared.

For a long time, Ilya stood. She stared at the sky, with the artificial clouds racing across it, even though above the clouds the next floor was visible. She looked at the ground. Somewhere down there Shirou was running around like an idiot.

Ilya reached up, finally, and then she took the [Teleport Crystal] and used it.


	6. 2:4 Diabel and Shirou

"Everyone, get ready." Daibel said. Even after he said it, he suppressed a grimace. That had been a little too harsh, a little too much of an order when these people were still more like a pick-up group than his subordinates. It had been three weeks since Kayaba announced the [Death Game], so they were still strangers enough that he had to be careful to manage the relationships perfectly. Even if he was getting irritated because they still hadn't found the [Boss Tower], even if he was tired, he shouldn't take it out on his party.

Well, Hexadecimal simply nodded in that slow way of his, and then closed his eyes. One Snow gave a cheerful "Osu!" before he also fell inward, and Itagaki's smile was sincere, even if her expression was a little tight with apprehension.

So Diabel set his worries aside and imagined as he breathed in. Inside his mind, his circuits were dormant. He reached in to them, and focused his whole mind on the image of a valve, a simple mechanical lever that blocked a pipe shut. He clenched the lever in his thoughts and pushed it a quarter turn, so that the block was rotated 90 degrees and his circuits would open. Diabel expelled his breath deeply and slowly, and let his eyes open before taking another glance around them. Absently he noticed the second meter that slid out beneath his [HP Gage], the [Prana Gage] that was switched on during [Circuit Activation].

The [Magic System] in [Sword Art Online] was strange. Diabel had never played a game with anything quite like it. Because it took at least two spells before you could even do anything that could properly be called [Magecraft]. First, the [Prana Gage] had to be switched on by opening the [Magic Circuits]. But by default, when it was switched on, the [Prana Gage] was empty, it had zero [MP], although the NPCs always referred to it as [units of Prana] rather than [Magic Points]. And that led into the second step, that in order to fill up the [Prana Gage] a Player had to use either the [Gather Mana] or the [Generate Od] spell. Generally speaking, the [Gather Mana] spell drained magical energy that drifted in the atmosphere, and [Generate Od] squeezed magical energy out of your body. So [Generate Od] was faster and easier, but the amount of [Prana] it could create was limited. And the penalty was higher. The penalty for [Spell Failure] was always [HP Loss] corresponding to the scale of the failure. Whereas someone could use [Generate Mana] to suck up power until the area was depleted as the only limit to the spell, there was an upper limit to [Generate Od] from the body that greatly increased the failure penalty. Already it was called things like the [Lesser Source] among players, but since [Mana] only regenerated slowly, it was as scarce as good pops in the heavily farmed areas.

Frankly speaking it was too complex. Diabel had never played a game that had such a complicated mechanic for spellcasting. Compared to a normal game that could be summarized in just eight words, [Magic uses Magic Points from your Mana Bar], this system was full of caveats and addendums. It was messy. It was an unnecessary amount of complication for a game. Compared to the simple and intuitive way the rest of the game worked, the so-called [Thaumaturgy Patch] was stubbornly weird.

He was getting cranky again. He took a deep breath to calm down and looked around. Naturally he checked to make sure that they hadn't drawn the attention of the group of [Ruin Kobolds], but it wasn't just that. Sitting in the hollow of a ruined tower, a semicircular pile of rocks with complicated shadows because of the simulated sunset, he also checked his party.

All three of them were teenagers.

One Snow was tall and strongly built for a high-school senior, but his casual stories about his kendo club indicated that was his position in society. He would probably equip a [Katana] weapon as soon as they became available, but for right now he had a [Two-Handed Sword] as his primary weapon. He was, from Diabel's perspective, perfect. He was a casual gamer with Real Life skills that gave him an edge over other gamers at his theoretical skill. Outside of battle he was confident, easy-going, and amiable, but inside combat he had the aggressive drive to score points of a winning kendo fighter. By the time he was confident enough in the game system, he would have already fallen into Diabel's orbit as great DPS.

Itagaki was extremely similar; a high-school girl who played games casually, but was the captain of her school Naginata club. So she was also the type that was excellent at the actual fighting, but lacked the experience to confidently optimize her build. She was also someone that would become an excellent and grateful asset with just a little bit of leadership. Even better, she was already tending towards heavy equipment just like Diabel used, so he could lead her growth perfectly. With the right equipment for armor and a long polearm, her real-world distance judgment skills made her a genuinely excellent tank even this early in the game.

The problem was that she had already chosen another player as a mentor, Hexadecimal.

Hexadecimal was short, not even 150 cm tall, with an otherwise unremarkable body and a shock of hair that was too messy and too long. He played as a [Dual Wielder], a build that many people tried but usually abandoned as impractical. It was easy to set up; all that was required was to equip a [Weapon Skill] twice, two at the same time, and then equip an appropriate [Weapon] in each hand. Just like that, the option to [Dual Wield] was unlocked. Keeping track of two weapons was mentally difficult, so it was hard to use [Dual Wield] to its full potential; that's why most people used a more reliable build, but Hexadecimal made it work. His default equipment at this level was a [Bronze One-Handed Mace] for stun and knockback and a [Bronze One-Handed Axe] for follow-up. Compared to the orthodox, real-world skills of the other two, his character build was clearly more game-like. He wasn't an androgynous skeleton that had maxed out the [Height] and [Limb Length] parameters while setting the slider for [Muscle Mass] all the way to the bottom. But that strange math name, that ninja-like cloth mask covering the face below the eyes, and that eclectic selection of [Weapon Skills] made Diabel certain it was someone he knew from the beta, a solo player who specialized in PVP... the same as he had been. That made Diabel nervous.

But for right now it was most important that their morale was still high.

With his [Circuits] activated, he could tell that he was falling behind. The [Mana] that had been lapping against his skin was like the tide going out as it was pulled into One Snow and Hexadecimal, and he could also feel waves coming off Itagaki using [Generate Od] since her ability to use [Gather Mana] was too unreliable for a dungeon. Slightly chagrined at falling behind, Diabel set aside his thoughts and focused on the task at hand. He closed his eyes and imagined the spell in his mind. Just like the [Sword Skills], he visualized the effect building up behind a dam until it suddenly burst forth. No, that wasn't quite accurate. If the [Magic Circuits] were like pipes, then during the spell [Gather Mana] those pipes were like a hole gouged straight down into the clay of his human body, and the water that saturated everything, called [Mana], seeped into the well. Diabel clenched his hands. The reason he compared the [Circuits] to gouges was because of this pain. When there was no other pain in the game it was a unique and fearful sensation. Frankly speaking, he wouldn't drink such poisonous water if it wasn't for the [Death Game]. But for the sake of staying alive, he would even drink the Devil's wine. That was the kind of person he was.

But even if he would endure it, Diabel still hated it. It was infuriating in a completely different way compared to the complicated and confusing [Prana Gage]. Because if the complication was proof that Kayaba Akihiko was a troll, then the mandatory and unnecessary pain when there was [Prana] flowing through his [Circuits] was proof that Kayaba Akihiko was a sadist. Thinking about it that way made Diabel afraid and angry.

The [Prana Gage] slowly filled up, and when it was completely blue instead of transparent grey, he released the image. His [Circuits] were no longer gouges in the earth of his flesh, but instead, they were once again pipes. Just the flow of [Prana] was like being smashed on the inside by water hammers, the dull pulse of pain as blobs of [Prana] blasted through him irregularly. But the pain was decreasing. Slowly, slowly, each time he used [Circuit Activation], his skill was increasing, the flow was steadier, the irregularities were smoothed out and each time it was less painful.

It was for this reason he endured, however. To pour the [Prana] out of him. For all the pain of activating the [Circuits], for all the fear and apprehension of being forced into the [Death Game], the experience of pouring [Prana] out of his soul and into his imagination was almost worth all of it, even for simple things.

What he imagined was a Rune. It was a simple shape, two upright lines parallel to each other, hooked together with a slender [X] shape laid between their tops. It was [Mannaz], and he knew enough English to immediately see the shared root with the word "Man". He imagined that the [Prana] spilled through the Rune and took its shape, spilling out of the pipes into the clay of his flesh, making him stronger, making him tougher, making him faster, making him stronger, making him... more. Better.

Mechanically, his [STR] and [AGI] were boosted, but saying it that plainly didn't do it justice. His breath came easier, his body felt lighter, his blood felt warmer. He felt good.

Compared to the [Reinforcement] in the basic [Formalcraft] system every NPC provided, this obscure [Runic Magic] was more effective in terms of both performance and efficiency, at least for Diabel. He sighed, releasing the breath he always held when casting a [Spell]. He had exhausted his [Prana Gage] to zero, so he also switched off the [Magic Circuits]. Having them active during battle would be a risk; no one in the party had healing magic, so there was no benefit to keeping them open, and the pain was a distraction.

Because he had started last, he also finished last. The other three were already standing, so he jumped up. He was always a little surprised at how easy it was to move right after he buffed up. "Everyone ready?" He asked with a smile, even though he knew that they were. When they nodded, he nodded back. "Good." He said. He was careful to keep his voice warm. "Then let's take it according to plan. There's no need to rush, so be careful."

There were eight kobolds.

Three were the [Lizard Berserkers] equipped with [Chipped Longswords] as a two-handed weapon and [Ragged Furs] as their defensive armament. There base stats weren't great, but they had the special property that attack power went up with their [Hate], so tanking them could be dangerous. Although they didn't look like much, the erratic, frantic natures of their movement once they tripped over into a [Berserk] state, and the distressing snarling of their voice animation, made them into something intimidating enough that you could easily lose your edge.

Four were [Armor Scavangers]. They were defensive-type mobs equipped with a mix of heavy armors that was generated randomly, so each one had different specific strong and weak points. As a rule they were a motley bunch in appearance, with an arbitrary mix of bronze armor, chainmail, and heavy leather equipment. Three had heavy [Two Handed Clubs], but the last had a [Rusty Cleaver] and an [Irregular Shield], a metal oval with a chipped edge.

The eighth character was the reason that they had carefully prepared, that they had scouted, that they had buffed their stats as high as they could.

Compared to the lean-but-wiry [Lizard Berserkers] and the muscular [Armor Scavangers], the eighth Kobold had the least impressive body. It was stooped over, leaning on a weathered and broken staff, barely able to stand upright. It was thin with an appearance closer to malnourishment than athleticism. A ragged cloak of rough material was pulled forward over his head, and hung on its frame like a drape thrown over furniture in an abandoned house.

But the floating name [Worm Disciple] and the two HP bars instead of the usual one was the proof that it was a field boss. Considering that, it was clearly a magic-using enemy. Considering that it was a Kobold, Diabel had hesitantly guessed that it would use some kind of fire elemental attack, or possibly it would be a summoner that would make more [Kobolds] pop.

Considering that it was completely unknown, they had talked, and the party had agreed to focus on the [Lizard Berserkers] first. Because their DPS went up over time, letting them get involved in a long fight was definitely a mistake. And since they didn't know how long it would take to handle the field boss or if it had any special events when it took enough damage, it was more reliable to handle the known threats and only then take the chance against the field boss.

"Attack!" Diabel shouted, pulling his sword out of his sheathe to point it at the enemy. There was no tactical need to say something so obvious, but he wasn't ignoring that it would be beneficial to the party's morale.

As expected, the [Lizard Berserkers] were the first to react, immediately charging as soon as the party tripped their response range. They were met nearly three meters away from the nominal group. Good; they had effectively split the kobold party.

Four players and three kobolds.

One Snow and Itagaki engaged the [Lizard Berserker] on the party's left flank. Itagaki parried the mob's sword attack with her spear, and then One Snow used a [Horizontal] on its open side, stepping forward across it. They already had good teamwork.

On the right flank, Hexadecimal was slower to respond than the Kobold, but he managed to step back so its [Rising Slash] was only a [Nick]. Then, he stepped forward, swinging his mace into a [Horizontal] to knock the Kobold off balance and following with a [Diagonal Chop] using his axe. Because of the damage bonus against a flat-footed opponent, just like that he already put it in the [Yellow Zone].

In the center, Diabel caught the [Linear] on his shield, forcing it aside, and then countered with his own [Vertical] right into the collarbone of the [Kobold Berserker]. It screamed in an eerie, guttural voice, but Diabel was slightly disappointed he hadn't managed to get it in the [Yellow Zone]. In that sense, he was losing.

When the Kobold reared back, he also stepped back into a defensive stance, and stole a glance at his party and the rest of the kobolds. The [Armor Scavengers] were only just now switching into combat mode, readying weapons and starting to jog over towards the players.

One Snow had his back to them. He had completely stepped past his target and had turned so that he was facing back towards it, towards the way he came. Diabel wanted to criticize him, but even as he watched, One Snow used another [Horizontal] to get a back attack bonus, and when the kobold staggered, Itagaki attacked herself, thrusting the spear into its center mass. They had already forced the Kobold into the [Red Zone]. So they were clearly winning, but Diabel was still worried. "Don't forget the rest!" He shouted, turning his attention back to his own opponent, blocking another attack with his shield.

Then the [Worm Disciple] acted. It was hunched over, muttering. Even though it wasn't speaking loudly, Diabel could hear its voice. Then, after what sounded like three verses based on the rhythm, even though the words themselves were unintelligible, it pointed.

Hexadecimal stopped. His guard was coming up, but it didn't perfectly block the attack because it stopped three-quarters of the way. He stopped stepping, he stopped moving his arms, he stopped moving his head, even his eyes couldn't move. He was motionless.

That was what the [Worm Disciple] could do. Some kind of [Curse Magic] that caused paralysis.

Diabel swore under his breath.

"Switch!" He shouted at the two party members that could still move. They looked up from finishing off their opponent, and Diabel trusted them to figure it out as he stopped engaging his enemy and moved to attack the one targeting Hexadecimal, who was now completely vulnerable. Because he interrupted its attack with a back attack, he was able to push it into the [Red Zone], and his mind relaxed when he saw it turn to focus on him, even as he heard the other two assault the Kobold that he'd necessarily turned his back towards. This was manageable.

Those foreign words, too soft to hear but still clearly heard, were spoken again.

But it wasn't on him, so Diabel just used a [Horizontal] and finished off his enemy, watching in satisfaction as it shattered into light. Only then did he sweep his gaze around.

One Snow was motionless.

The last [Lizard Berserker] was aiming at One Snow, but before he took more damage, Itagaki precisely thrust a spear [Sword Art] that Diabel didn't know the name of into the side of its neck, dealing enough damage that it, too, shattered into polygons and dissolved as its HP crossed zero.

Foreign words.

It was a sensation like earthworms with armored skulls drilling into his pipes. Even though the valve was closed, even though they were empty, even though those pipes should be turned off, there was a sensation like wriggling things digging into his body, eating their way into him, that horrible suffering lit up his brain. Diabel would have gasped in pain if his virtual diaphragm had been capable of operating his virtual lungs. But his muscles were locked. His neck was locked, his back was locked, his stomach was locked, his arms were locked, his legs were locked. The worms dug into the pipes and jammed them, they knotted up the joints from the inside, he couldn't move.

His confidence collapsed. The world became 20% darker. His locked-up body felt heavier. He was no longer sure he could move. But that was precisely what saved him. As the spell he used to [Reinforce] his body shattered, the left-over [Prana] that hadn't been consumed by the [Spell] yet had to go somewhere, so it leaked into his pipes. It drowned the worms and washed them away.

He could move again. But his buff was gone, and with its passing, he could see that his HP had gone done 30% as a result of the penalty for [Spell Failure]. He stumbled, clenching his teeth and wrapping his fingers back around the hilt of his sword.

Foreign words.

His head snapped up.

Itagaki was paralyzed. She was in a tight guard stance with her spear pointed towards that far-away caster, but it was meaningless if she couldn't move. An enemy could casually walk up to her side and cut her throat.

One Snow was paralyzed. He was in a deep stance with his sword in a side guard, but someone could just stand in front of him, reach over his guard, and stab him in the heart.

Hexadecimal was paralyzed. His weapons were crossed in front of his arms in an x-shaped guard, but it would be easy for someone to just disembowel him by going under those motionless arms.

Could he defeat the [Worm Disciple] alone with his party paralyzed?

No, before that, could he defeat all of those four [Armor Scavangers] that were still approaching?

Diabel gripped his sword and clenched his teeth. His eyes darted between his frozen party members. They relied on him as the party leader; even if it was a tentative bond, they still trusted him. His eyes darted to the four [Armor Scavangers] that were just approaching at a walking pace now that direct combat had paused. But they were definitely still closing. Four enemy mobs with a field boss supporting them were approaching. It was five on one, where the one had to protect three additional targets.

...The only stat he had that was higher than theirs was [Run Speed].

Diabel took a shaky step back. But hadn't he decided that he'd play a hero? No, rather than that, since he'd decided once Kayaba had told everyone that it wasn't really a game anymore, even if he was just faking it, what really was it that he had decided?

That shaky step back solidified into a fighting stance. He raised his shield and readied his sword.

But then-

A white blur with red highlights shot past him. A tall player with superlight equipment, a [White Jumpsuit] for armor and a [One-handed Curved Sword] as the weapon with the a red [Scarf] accessory. Without glancing around, he simply flew directly at the [Armor Scavangers] and smashed into them with a [Reaver] using the [Charging Attack] bonus.

This was that famous and notorious player. He appeared out of nowhere and stole your kills and departed without saying anything. Without asking any permission he inserted himself into the party as a dodge-type tank and upstaged everyone. That jumped into combat to save a party that challenged a monster too strong for them. Diabel had made it a point to find out as much as he could about all the strong players in [SAO], but even the player named [Argo] didn't charge much for the rumors on this player, because they were all contradictory. Even she wasn't confident in what she knew about him.

This was the player that was called, half-sarcastically and half-reverently, [Sixth Ranger].

And right now he was surrounded by four level nine [Armor Scavangers] with a level ten [field boss] right next to the melee. Even if he was an excellent player, there was no way he'd be able to survive. Even if he somehow, impossibly, was able to dodge all the blows of the four enemies around him, there was still that ridiculous trump card that the [Worm Disciple] could play that would pierce and entangle him.

A dry voice appropriate for a lizard that was speaking too soft to be heard but was yet still heard.

"Look out!" Diabel shouted. "The [Field Boss] has a [Curse Spell] effect!"

A cadence of three lines, and an ominous gesture.

But the [Sixth Ranger] did not even flinch, he didn't break the impossibly tight rhythm of continuously dodging the attacks of four [Armor Scavangers] as he slowly trained them back towards the [Worm Disciple]. He didn't even have to make a saving throw action like Diabel had; it was as if he had a spell resistance statistic that completely negated the curse before it could even affect him.

"Use your [Circuit Activation] and then circulate prana through your [Circuits]," with a calm voice like someone giving directions to someone else in the street, the [Sixth Ranger] spoke loudly so Diabel's who party could hear them. "The circulation will erode away the [Curse] and prevent it from taking root in your [Circuits]."

Diabel frowned, and took a hesitant step, but then paused to do as the stranger suggested. He imagined the clay, the pipes, and the valve. He reached into himself mentally and grasped the valve firmly, and then turned it.

He could feel the [Mana] brushing past him as it was lapped up by One Snow and Hexadecimal. They were also gathering [Mana] to circulate so they could create the effect. Even as Diabel started doing the same, slight waves radiated off of Itagaki as she started up the [Generate Od] spell.

Hexadecimal took a stumbling step forward, rolling his shoulders and neck. Even if it was a virtual body, he probably had a sensation like stiffness from being frozen in place like that.

One Snow eased up, stepping forward in a few shuffling moves as he swung the sword with tentative practice motions, an expression of relief and amazement on his face as he watched himself freely move again.

Itagaki was smiling with a watery expression, but it turned hard as her gaze shifted from her party members towards the Kobold party.

This time, there was no need to say anything.

The party charged. They fell upon the [Armor Scavangers] from behind. Itagaki speared one in lower back. When it turned, One Snow perfectly stepped forward and sliced its throat even as Itagaki smoothly switched out. Together, they managed to force it into the [Yellow Zone]. The [Armor Scavanger] swung its [Two-Handed Club] in a downwards diagonal blow towards One Snow, but he stepped back and parried it so that it slammed into the ground rather than his shoulder, and then followed the parry to pin its club with its sword. It would break free as soon as it tried because it had a higher [STR] than he did even with his stats buffed with [Reinforcement], but before it had the chance Itagaki stepped forward and smoothly launched a [Skill]. It wasn't a gamble to aim at the head in that instant it was pinned, so that [Critical Hit] was enough to completely empty its HP bar.

Hexadecimal jumped. He leapt up into the air with his legs tucked up and his arms extended, bring them down to brutally smash his mace and then his axe into the shoulder of the leftmost [Armor Scavanger] in quick succession. The cooldown for his [Skills] wore off before the kobold's [Stun] or [Knockdown] status did, so Hexadecimal coldly stepped over the prone kobold and launched simultaneous [Diagonal Strikes] with both mace and axe, plunging them into the collarbone on each side of the neck. Just like that, he finished off his opponent.

And Diabel used a [Shield Bash] followed with a [Horizontal] to finish off the one that had engaged the guy nicknamed Sixth Ranger the most closely. The one-two hit combo against an enemy that had just been pushed into the yellow was enough to kill it, forcing its HP down past zero, and it broke into polygons and disappeared.

Diabel looked up. The last [Armor Scavanger] with the sword-and-shield equip had backed up to stand in a guard position in front of the field boss, who was chanting again. It was already past three lines, so it wasn't the same spell. Diabel tensed, circulating his [Prana] again, the sweat animation starting on his forehead from either the stress of the warmth that always poured out of his [Circuits].

The [Worm Disciple] raised its hand, and laid it against the last [Armor Scavanger], which raised its shield in front of it and swung the sword back to a back guard as it shifted into an offensive stance. It tensed, and Diabel felt a nauseating [Prana] like foul water splashing against him as the field boss cast some kind of buff effect on the last party member. Judging by the cadence of its speech, it only had half a line to go to complete the [Spell].

And the Sixth Ranger stepped forward with the same blinding speed, ignoring the [Armor Scavanger] and its sword as he brushed past it by centimeters, and shot a [Reaver] into the face of the casting field boss.

The effect was immediate and obvious. The [Armor Scavanger] stumbled and roared as half its HP was carved away by the [Spell Failure] penalty. Equally, the [Worm Disciple] lost a third of one of its HP bars as the [Spell] was disrupted and the prepared [Prana] burned its way free like heat loss.

Hexadecimal was the first to act, knocking the shield out of the way and following up with an axe attack. One Snow was only a step behind him, and they switched as he swung his sword in a perfect [Horizontal], accelerated past the natural limits of the [Sword Skill] by his IRL kendo training.

Sixth Ranger stood casually, with his sword resting on his shoulder, leaving his entire right flank exposed. The [Worm Disciple] struck with unexpected speed and power, but with just half a step, his target was suddenly out of range. And then [Sixth Ranger] swung his sword. It wasn't a [Skill], it was just a cut at an awkward angle of about 30 degrees as the sword came off his right shoulder and swung out. It perfectly passed through where the jugular and windpipe just below the trachea would have been if the [Worm Disciple] had anatomy instead of being a hollow shell. Just like that, Diabel was amazed that someone could score a [Critical Hit] so easily. Just like that, the second [HP bar] was emptied out and the first sliver was chipped away from the one bar that remained.

Itagaki stepped forward, spinning the spear in her hands and using a slashing-type skill on the field boss from behind as she stepped past it.

One Snow used a [Diagonal] on such a severe angle it was practically vertical, putting the edge of his sword four centimeters from the tip directly into the middle of the field boss' head and pulling down in a beautiful stroke.

Hexadecimal and Diabel made eye contact, and Diabel smirked at the slightly narrow expression.

Like he expected, he got there first. While two party members were in cooldown and the last was chasing his back, he launched his strongest [Skill], and was rewarded by being the one to make the [Last Attack].

[Congratulations!]

It was a simple dialogue box with a single English word that floated in the air. Compared to the trumpet fanfare that had accompanied winning a fight against a Floor Boss, this simple popup was nothing special. But even so, the relief and happiness at winning this battle was a dozen times sweeter than any [Floor Boss Battle] that Diabel had participated in. For now Diabel ignored the popup box with the XP, col, and bonus item that announced his personal gains.

"I leveled!" Itagaki shouted, with the particular voice halfway between a cheer and a shriek of an excited girl. She turned and smiled so broadly her eyes were nearly shut, making eye contact with Hexadecimal. "I leveled up!" She repeated.

"Congratulations." One Snow said to the girl, sheathing his sword with a solemn motion. Although his body language and motions were perfect, the goofy smile he had ruined the image of the stoic samurai that he was trying to invoke.

Hexadecimal was smiling, too, although that face mask made it difficult to tell. Diabel noticed that he had clenched his fists even with his hands hanging casually at his sides; certainly, Diabel had problems with the shakes sometimes too, so he didn't say anything but resolved to carefully speak to him later.

The party leader turned and made eye contact with the unknown factor called [Sixth Ranger]. And Diabel paused.

It was a pure smile. It was not so broad it used up the maximum amount of mouth like Itagaki's delighted grin. It lacked the goofy and relieved cheer that One Snow had. No, it was an utterly relaxed expression hinted at by the sides of the eyes and the slightest, most placid motion of the mouth curving up. It was a pure smile without any expectation, an expression like a Buddha statue.

Diabel found his voice. "Thank you for helping us." He said. He paused. There were a hundred questions competing in his mind. Where had he learned to play like that? Where had he learned to fight like that? Where had he learned that detail about the [Magic System]? What were his goals? What was his level? Was he stronger than Diabel? He paused, unsure for a moment of what he wanted to say. He didn't even know. "What..." Diabel said.

But with only the slightest nod to acknowledge his thanks, a recognition that he had been spoken to rather than accepting the praise, that guy just turned and walked away. He glanced around, sliding the [One-Handed Curve Sword] into the sheath at the small of his back, already turned away from them. Simply put, the [Sixth Ranger] had no interest in participating in their happiness.

With just a casual glance at his own menu and the slightest pause before he jabbed at a button only he could see, the enigmatic player that everyone just called [Sixth Ranger] took off at a run, sprinting away at a top speed none of them could hope to match.

Diabel's question died on his lips, and he just turned back to his party. He shared a confused shrug with One Snow.

"He didn't even give his name." Itagaki murmured to herself.

"Shirou." Hexadecimal quietly answered, as if she had asked him a question. He was glancing down and in front of him where his menu would be, although it was invisible to everyone else. "That player's name is [SHIROU] spelled in all capitol letters."

"Huh." One Snow said, and more questions came to Daibel's head. Hexadecimal had been a soloer who mostly played PvP in the beta; had this [SHIROU] been the same? Diabel had never seen him before, and didn't recognize him at all. But on the other hand, maybe he played differently during the [Death Game] than he did during the beta, just like Diabel was. Or maybe his play style was unrecognizable because his [Real Body Simulation] was vastly different than his [Avatar] had been. Certainly the beta-player called [Berserkah] had been bragging on various message boards before the official launch, and this [SHIROU] person was someone inscrutable and weird enough to just be [Berserkah] with a different player name.

"How do you know that?" Itagaki asked. Diabel was thankful; she asked it with honest curiosity, whereas there was no way that Diabel would have been able to keep accusation out of his voice.

"He just accepted my friend request." Hexadecimal said with a vague gesture towards the menu the rest of them couldn't see.

"What a good idea." One Snow muttered.

Diabel wasn't so sure.


	7. 2:5 KC4BG 1

Kibaou shouted with triumph as his sword cut into the [Lesser Dark Wolf] and it died, shattering into blue-green light.

"Yeah!" He crowed, pumping his fist, "How do you like that!" He glanced at his [HP Bar] and saw that it went back up. He was somebody that played DPS, so he was always glad when someone else played a Healer. He didn't allow himself to think about what would happen if there wasn't one in the party during this game.

"Thanks Bones!" He turned, shouting at the Healer, sweeping his gaze back to the Wolves.

His eyes snapped back to his party member though. Because the Healer's [HP bar] was red even though he hadn't gotten hit even once. And worse, the HP bar was sliding down.

"Bones!" He shouted, reaching out.

The bar went empty. The last sliver of red disappeared. With an expression of denial still on his face, Bones burst into light and evaporated.

"Bones!" Kibaou shouted, tears coming to his eyes.

Distantly he heard a party member shout a warning. He turned, and snapped back as one of the remaining Lesser Dark Wolves bit him. He stared down at it in horror. "It's your fault..." he said.

"It's your fault!" He snarled. Savagely, he used [Reaver] at point blank range, slashing the enemy mob deeply, forcing the sword to go faster, to hit harder, simply with the force of his rage and sorrow. "I'll kill you all!" He swore, using the attack again.

The other wolf bit him. He swung at it.

His mind was a haze. He didn't worry about anything except slashing these enemies in front of him.

Just like that, his HP bar decremented. He didn't stumble or fall back. Simply, as he pulled back to use another skill, the world abruptly disappeared. No, it was that he abruptly disappeared from the world.

In the sudden, absolute darkness and cold, two words floated like the specter of death.

[Game Over]

...

"Dammit", Kibaou cursed the world with his last thought.

...

"Welcome..." But a rich, smooth, heavy voice spoke. But there was something ominous underneath that magnificent sound. "...to Kotomine's Church. For Bad Guys."

It was definitely the voice of someone that sincerely laughed at other people.

Kibaou sat up, snapping up from where he had been laying on the floor, on the carpet that led up between the pews. In the simple white arch of a Church, standing before the altar adorned with simple candles, there was a priest. He had a kind smile without kindness, black robes with a simple crucifix, and a mullet.

"But I'm not a bad guy." Kibaou's first words in that place were a protest.

"Oh?" The priest said it with an honest tone, but the way he raised his eyebrow definitely showed it was not a question. "That is simply a matter of perspective. It's true that everyone thinks they are the hero of their own life, but if we add up everyone's perspective, then sometimes your one vote of [hero] is outweighed by a hundred votes of [villain]." The priest spread his arms in a benediction.

"But I'm not a bad guy!" Kibaou shouted.

That kind smile like a shark became just the tiniest bit wider. "Imagine," the priest began a cool speech, "a potato-"

"There's no time for that garbage." From the front corner of the Church a voice of absolute command spoke. A blond man was slouching on the furthest left side of the left pew in the front of the church with his arm thrown over the back. He stood, and the easy uncoiling motion he made instantly forced Kibaou to pay attention to him. His clothes were simple and casual, but definitely of immense quality. He turned, and that absolute arrogance in his red eyes crushed Kibaou.

Somehow Kibaou knew [that garbage] was referring to him specifically, not to the conversation generally.

"Hey," he began to protest, but a single gaze with the barest sneer from that guy was enough to shut him down instantly.

"Oh?" The priest spoke that same honest tone saying that same word, but this time it was truly a perfectly neutral question.

"Yes!" That totally arrogant man shouted, even though they could hear him just fine. "How is it possible that a pathetic Faker received one of my treasures in a special edition packaging instead of the great me!?"

Kibaou definitely had no idea what he was talking about.

The priest stood quietly, obviously thinking. "If it's the bloomers..." muttering something that ominous, he turned to glance at Kibaou.

Kibaou quickly searched for a less terrifying conversational subject. "So I died?" He asked.

"Hm hm hm." With a hearty chuckle, the priest agreed. "You foolishly let your arrogance blind you, allowed your party member to sacrifice himself, and then died while choking on rage and guilt."

"So..." Kibaou licked his dry lips, hesitating. "What should I do differently?"

"Swallow the rage and guilt, and then retreat." Kotomine said with a serious nod. "Then, allow it to slowly fester inside of you, growing with each failure and oversight, knowing that it is all a result of the skills you lack. Bury the guilt under anger, forcing everyone to follow as you run blindly from your own failures, never looking back as they stumble and fall into the abyss of death, until finally you wake up one morning and realize you are alone, because everyone you love has abandoned you or died." The smile became warm and lovely. His eyes twinkled. "Only then, in a moment of perfect despair, should you commit suicide."

Kibaou glanced at the other guy.

"Impudent mongrel!" The man sneered. "To even imply that the great King should lower himself to give advice to garbage like you!" He swung his arm dramatically. "However, you shall still receive my boundless magnanimousness."

Even though he talked like that, Kibaou found himself leaning forward, actually looking forward to the advice somewhat.

"In your next life," that golden guy began, "be born as a great King!" He swung his other arm dramatically.

"But not as great as me!" He added as an afterthought.

Kibaou sighed.

"Yes," The priest urged, "Fall into despair, just... like... that."

Kibaou thought he would be better off just gambling on a superhero showing up out of nowhere to save him.


	8. 3:1 1F Boss Meeting

The number of people that had gathered was 53.

Since the game setting of [SAO] had a maximum party size of six people, and a [Raid Group] was a collection of 8 parties, then a full raid would be a group of 48 people. Compared to other games, the convenient system of [Instances] didn't exist. All quests were available globally, but at the same time, if someone was doing a quest than it prevented anyone else from doing them. That meant that as soon as an extremely beneficial event like the quest for his [Anneal Blade] become common knowledge, players immediately had to enter the queue and take their turn, so the gap between a quest getting discovered and becoming common knowledge was the greatest category of value that information brokers sold.

Well, after getting that out of the way, the upside was that even if you had a full [Raid Group] for fighting a boss, there was nothing preventing the organizing players from dispatching a second or even third [Raid Group]. However, such a glorious faction that proudly called themselves [Zerg] would lose out to other factions, because the fixed amount of [Experience] that each boss provided would be divided between an even larger number of players. In terms of [Game Balance] the rule was that a boss was designed to be challenged by a single [Raid Group].

In a [Death Game], though, that logic was completely thrown out. The objective wasn't to defeat bosses as quickly as possible for maximum gain, but to defeat them with zero casualties and cheerfully make up the XP loss with farming.

As a result, his estimation had been that at least 2 * 8 * 6 players would gather, and his hope had been for more than 3 * 8 * 6 players. Compared to his prediction that between 96 or 144 or ideally even more players would show up, this number of 53 was painfully low. Based on information he'd bought from Argo, it wasn't a lack of people with enough levels that was the problem. No, there were two hypothesis that he would consider as an explanation for the low showing.

The first was, that without external communications on internet forums, and without the internal communications tools that guilds had, it was simply too difficult to coordinate the players that were scattered all over the first floor grinding. Thinking like that, the player called [Kirito] pulled in air to sigh.

"This many…"

But hearing the whispered voice beside him, his gusty and melodramatic expression of dismay was prevented by that hopeful whisper.

"Many? With this number gathered?" He asked, trying to keep his expression and voice neutral.

"Yes." With a solemn nod, diminished slightly by that overwhelming hood, the rapier user replied. "That this many where gathered to fight the Floor Boss, even against the chance of complete annihilation…" Saying such an ominous thing, she naturally faltered.

"I see." The dry and ironic expression didn't quite leave his voice. Because the second hypothesis for the low attendance was that the remainder of strong players didn't want to challenge the Boss. The mental gap between winning a [Game] and winning a [Death Match] was huge.

Even as he scanned the crowd and looked for people that he recognized, casually nodding to the aforementioned [Argo] when their eyes happened to meet, he felt the attention of his companion as she turned her gaze on him, challenging the tone of disagreement that he had used with his words.

Because even if he was held back by the fear of death in front of him, he wasn't getting pulled forward by any heroic feelings like she was referring to. Instead, what was pushing at his back was the fear of getting left behind. "For me," he finally explained, "it's more that I don't want to be a player who struggles just to stay five levels below the top players, so the best thing to do is to be one of the top players right from the start."

Although she seemed to frown a little bit, what happened next wasn't a rebuttal but small quick nods that went 'I see, I see.' After nodding, what she said was, "So it's the same as wanting to be in the top 10 places during the school year, or in the 98th percentile on tests. That kind of feeling?"

[Kirito], who viewed school as a combination of [Somewhere to learn necessary skills] like math and science and [Someplace full of annoying societal obligations] like literature and gym classes, simply murmured "That's so" as a placeholder while turning it over in his head, before finally nodding with some hesitation and agreeing.

Although he was glad she was laughing, the fact she was laughing at him was a problem.

"Ah!" While he was contemplating whether to equip the [Tease] skill or not, those two players were interrupted by an exclamation from behind them.

"Asuna-chan!" It was the warm voice of an energetic young girl. Even as Kirito turned, he noted that the way the cold-hearted ultra-perfectionist [Asuna] responded was with "Ilya-san!" in a matching light and friendly tone.

When he turned, his first thought was wondering, why did this younger girl receive a "san" from Asuna rather than being addressed with a "kun" or also "chan." She was short, thin, and albino-pale. Her red eyes, perfectly white skin and silver-colored hair might have been a synthetic coloration choice, but somehow her fairy-like appearance seemed correct. The white clothing equipment was almost necessary as something that would prevent her skin tone from getting washed out in contrast.

However, that [Iron Breastplate] was the heaviest type of armor available on the first floor, and that [Two-Handed Iron Sword] hanging off her back was equally the heaviest sword. Since the equipment had been cosmetically adjusted to be purple, that meant she was already familiar with the [Color Adjustment Options] that tailors and armor smiths used and had the spare Col to spend on it. Considering the investment of the base equipment as well as the minimum stats required to equip them, this slight girl was obviously near the functional [Level Cap] of the floor. That is to say, she was in the same league as Asuna and Kirito as one of the [Top Players… for now].

With a warm and sharp smile that definitely set off Kirito's [Teasing Little Sister] alarm, she approached them and stood casually with an expression that perfectly feigned innocence.

"So even if she didn't get the [Delicate Flower] drop, Asuna-chan still managed to pick up a [Bishounen] to equip as a boyfriend, huh?"

Asuna's response was utterly without hesitation. "Of course not."

From the perspective of the guy they were talking about, what happened was the player called [Asuna] still used [Linear] even with [Talk] equipped instead of [Rapier] and caused piercing damage. Even as he was debating whether to [Parry] or simply equip his [Meditation] skill to recover the lost HP using mental endurance, the devilish little girl turned her head again and called out to her own companion.

"Shirou!" She called, waving her hand. "Over here!"

"Shirou, huh." Asuna said with a suggestive tone. "So the reason you assume others are going around equipping boyfriends like accessories as fast as possible is because of your own inclinations, huh?"

"Shirou?" Ilya said, with that same innocent and confused expression. "But he's just my oniichan." But then, the wide-eyed expression of a kitten narrowed into the predatory expression of a hunting cougar. "But since there's no blood relation, that wouldn't be a problem either." Of course, Asuna began to sputter at that, since she had taken the [knockback] effect.

"Uwaa." Kirito could not keep himself from making a sound like that. It didn't have anything to do with their conversation. It was 100% about the sight in front of him.

The unremarkable dark grey pants and blue shirt that were just humdrum varieties of the initial equip, and then the lopsided [Bronze Breastplate] over the top, weren't the reason for his amazement. It was because that guy definitely had the stupidest helmet Kirito had seen in [SAO], no, in any [Video Game] he had ever played.

The fundamental shape was like a bucket, to the level that Kirito was slightly surprised that it did not have a handle knocking against the equipping player's back or chest. But you could only determine that after being amazed at the antlers. Those deer-like antlers from the [Jackalope] spawn past the South Field, which had six points, where impressive, but not quite impressive enough for an effect like [Evil Horned Knight] which would require a minimum of eight or ideally twelve points on the antlers. As a bonus, they were crooked; they jutted out of the helmet at different angles. As the perfect crowning absurdity, the many holes that were punched in the front to allow visibility were completely random without any pattern at all.

It was the incredible, no, the spectacular result of using the [Heavy Metal Armor Forging] Skill with exactly one point and the lowest-quality [Bronze Hammer]. That sort of amazing failure that wasn't technically a failure couldn't be anything else than a player reaching beyond their skill limit and gloriously failing.

Kirito only realized he'd made such an amazed sound when the young girl, now pouting incredibly, called him "a big meanie."

"Ilya." Even though all he said was her name, his tone of voice fully conveyed that he was happily going along with her whims even though that was exasperating. The guy with the extraordinary helmet equipped spoke with a rough but warm voice, even as he crossed his arms. "Since you insisted it I equipped a [Helmet], but couldn't we have just bought one?"

Puffing her cheeks out, the girl put her hands on her hips. "But then I wouldn't have gotten to try out my new skill at all."

Somehow, even though that guy was wearing a [Ridiculous Helmet] that covered his face, Kirito could feel when their eyes met, and his wry grin was returned as they wordlessly shared an exasperated smile.

"Let's just go sit down." Kirito suggested gently, and the group of four that spontaneously formed meandered towards the [Fountain Clearing] in the last town of the first floor, [Tolbana].

Since the two girls were chatting so amicably, Kirito felt slightly obligated to talk to the other man, but after just the barest of pleasantries, without even giving each other's names, their conversation ended that quickly. Frankly speaking, Kirito didn't mind. That guy was doing the exact same thing he was: examining the crowd.

Of the 53 people gathered, he mentally discounted [Argo] from the list of people that would participate in the [Boss Fight]. Since her motto was [Knowledge is Power], she was the type that would find high-reward quests instead of grinding when trying to level up. But for her, [leveling up] was simply a requirement to verify quests and rumors; since her priorities were different, Kirito would have been very surprised if she was more than level six. Well, she wasn't suited for large group battles in the first place.

That subtraction left 52 people. From that deck of cards, the number of people that would be outside the [Raid] was four. Including the girl sitting beside him, he personally knew the names of about five people in the gathering, and recognized about twenty more. So, the number of completely new faces was approximately half the group. That was about what he would expect this early.

Since Klein wasn't here, Kirito felt both relieved and disappointed. But, pushing aside his own complicated feelings, at least that guy should still be safe.

He was dragged from his musings by a blinking icon.

[Private Message]  
[From: Argo]

Casually, he tapped it open.

[Kiibou,  
Congratulations on accepting the Quest Flag [Defeat Illfang]. It's impertinent, but I'm interested in buying whatever info you have on your new party members.  
Argo]

Although his response was to sarcastically ask how she knew the [First Floor Boss] was still Illfang in this situation, it was just a cover to buy time while he pondered. Since he was definitely sure that Argo and Asuna knew each other, that meant she was asking after those other two. It didn't bother him that [Argo the Rat] was asking so brazenly, but compromising her bargaining position with her eagerness: that was unusual for her.

He was confident she was typing an equally sharp reply to parry his, but before she could hit send, she was interrupted by the sound of someone clapping hands and then capturing everyone's attention with loud and confident words.

"Okay! Everyone, thank you for coming to the [Strategy Meeting]! If you have difficulty hearing, please move towards the front!"

People shifted around them, as the crowd changed shape from just milling around to form a semicircle around the speaking man. Kirito's group was fine, so they simply contented themselves with observing the player that had called the meeting.

Just like the little girl beside him, he had the heaviest armor yet available equipped, but the effect when strapped on him was definitely more impressive. Kirito's [Gamer Instincts] took note of the equipment, the level and stat requirements, as well as evaluating the implication of the difficult-to-get [Hair Die] that was used to recolor this guy to the [Blue Theme]. Immediately after that, he even started to wonder if he had seen this player before. His appearance was familiar, but it was slightly troubling because his build was unfamiliar and he was unsure if this was someone Kirito knew from the [Death Game] or the [Beta].

But before that, even as he evaluated the man standing there with the confident smile while he stood at the center of everyone's attention, the first thing Kirito thought was, "That guy is handsome." However, although he was good looking, Kirito wouldn't be too proud to say that they were tied in terms of good looks. What was different was the sense of presence. Compared to Kirito who hated public speaking even at the level of reading aloud in class, what was different wasn't the [Appearance] parameter, but instead, it was simply that this guy had [Charisma].

After everyone settled down and stopped talking under that smile, the speaker held the moment for precisely the right amount of time to build the audience's expectation that [something would happen].

"To begin with, I want to congratulate all of you for accepting my [Quest Flag]!" With a self-deprecating smile while referring to himself as if he were an NPC, he continued speaking. "For those that don't know me, I will introduce myself. My name is [Diabel], and my class is [Rune Knight]!"

There was whistles and cheers, because [SAO] was a game completely without a class system. If it was something like [Class], then it was a selection of [Skills], [Statistics], and [Equipment] that were optimal for some specialization. So, for the people gathered that were the best players of the game currently, he was opening his speech with a light joke.

That warm smile faded slightly, and Kirito paused. He put aside his thoughts of "where do I recognize this guy from" and was drawn in by the serious and pensive look on that man's face.

"For everyone gathered here, what I'm about to say is obvious. But…" While building the tension, Diabel drew a deep breath and swept his gaze across everyone. "Yesterday evening, just when we were preparing to return to town, my party found the stairs to the top of the last floor in the [Boss Tower]. Excited, we kept mapping, and at midnight we found it." Looking across the scene, it was almost as if the game had froze and the display hadn't updated, that was how still everyone was. "The [First Floor Boss Room]!"

Caught up in the moment, even Kirito put his fingers in his mouth and whistled, to add his voice to the cheering. It was certainly an achievement to be proud of. It was an honorable win to challenge the floor and complete it, although his [Gamer's Pride] was stung that he was one of the ones that had been fruitlessly searching for the now-discovered [Last Staircase] yesterday. With an amused smile, he noticed that Asuna had a sour look on her face like she felt the same way, even as she clapped as enthusiastically as the little girl she was sitting next to.

"After one month, one long month, we're ready. No, we're more than ready. I believe that everyone here is totally prepared to encourage everyone else! The top players gathered here will prove to everyone waiting that the [Death Game] can be won and we can save ourselves with our own efforts!"

They were rousing words. Kirito wanted to join everyone who was applauding, but somehow there was a boundary between whistling and applauding that he was not quite ready to cross. Everything this knight was saying was admirable and correct, so this quiet doubt inside him was.…

"So you noticed too, huh." His internal debate was interrupted by the little girl that had been called [Ilya] by Asuna, although they hadn't been introduced, considering the informal nature of net games. He turned to meet her eyes, and blinked, leaning back slightly from the surprising intensity of her gaze. "Huh?" He replied with an inarticulate expression on his face.

"Maybe not." Ilya muttered, before her grin sharpened. "Oh, look at this."

Following her gaze, Kirito saw him.

He was stocky and short, moving forward through the crowd. From behind what was visible was the heavy one-handed curved sword hanging from his back and a pointy hairstyle that Kirito could only compare to a brown cactus.

"Wait a minute, [Rune Knight]-san." His voice was deep and he growled his words in an exaggerated Kansai dialect, a different way of speaking than the precise and articulate words of Diabel.

However, in front of the annoyed expressions of the audience and the disapproving look of the one who called the meeting, [Cactus-san] was completely unintimidated. When he spoke, the words were addressed to Diabel, but in reality they were being said to everyone gathered here.

"Before we go any further, there's something we have to clear up, otherwise I won't join you."

Diabel was clearly calculating those words, before finally he chose a response. "Having opinions is certainly welcome. But before sharing yours, please introduce yourself."

With an air of someone executing a formality, that guy turned to face the gathered players. Rather than addressing Diabel for everyone to hear, now he was speaking directly to everyone. "My name is Kibaou."

But after saying that like it was a formality, he still paused. But it didn't come off as melodramatic or foolish, because the intense and slightly wild look in his eyes as he swept his gaze across the gathered players was enough to create an atmosphere of tension. Compared to the magnetic charisma of Diabel, what Kibaou did was radiate a presence like heat.

After than pause, Kibaou spoke. "Five or ten people here need to apologize."

"Apologize? Who?" Diabel spoke with dignity, as picked up the counterpoint and asked the obvious question with grace as a prompt for the man standing beside him.

"Those guys, who had a monopoly from the beginning, no, even before then, those guys need to push their foreheads to the ground before the dead!"

The murmuring and whispers in the audience fell silent as everyone gathered grasped what was being said. Certainly, every death in [Aincrad] was theoretically preventable. Certainly, if the [Beta Testers] had put effort into protecting the [New Players], then in theory some or possibly even all deaths could have been prevented.

Certainly, that was all true. Guilt was in Kirito's stomach like a rope being twisted tight. No, even between [Beta Testers]… there was one that had even been willing to sacrifice others to gain [power]. And in exchange, Kirito had allowed that guy to become the sacrifice instead. Stories like that were probably common.

But… compared to the five or ten people here that Kibaou was blaming, who had responded to Diabel's [Quest to Clear the Floor], no, Diabel's [Quest to Inspire Hope], there were also [Beta Players] who had already died!

Because while they had the knowledge to pull ahead on the [Path of Death], there were many mines that had been dropped on that road that could destroy a careless [Player], and even so, the tool needed to sweep those deadly traps was like drinking poison.

[Magic]… that system was fundamentally unlike the [Beta Game]. No, from a gameplay perspective, it was even further from the [Beta Game] than the [Death Game] parameter. Compared to the original [SAO], the logic was different, the concepts were different, the rules were different. The core, the simplest and most fundamental law of Aincrad was, [You can become better at anything with effort]. If you equipped a long sword and swung it, if you equipped a hammer and made armor, if you equipped a fishing pole and stood by a river, no matter what it was, if you simply used the gained experience to touch the prerequisites, you could improve it. What made [Aincrad] so seductive as a game was that, even though you could only equip a few skills at a time, there was absolutely no limit on the number of skills you could possess.

[Thaumaturgy] was different. From the instant the simple prerequisite [Quest] was completed, the player was given their limits. Those sage-like NPCs called it circuits and talked about quantity and quality and spiritual traits, but what Kirito determined was that maximum MP was fixed at character creation; and once the [Element] traits could be identified, the number and kind of elements a player could use was also determined randomly. It was completely unlike gambling with [Random Number God] during item drops in quests you could always repeat, it was a totally unfair roll that determined everything at birth.

That was the simple mechanical description, but fundamentally, when Kayaba had turned [Sword Art Online] into this [Sword-and-Sorcery Death Game], he had changed the basic nature from a fair and balanced [Fun Game] to someplace as irrational and unfair as [Real Life].

The cruel and brutal indifference was only discovered by stepping on those land mines. In the [Beta Test], if a player died, they could point to a definite mistake, whether it was greedily reaching past their safe limits, or their own bad combat ability, or gambling too much against a clearly defined challenge and getting in trouble. But [Magecraft] was a death machine that could only be discovered by tripping over the hazards. Things like [Circulating Prana causes Magic Resistance] was necessary knowledge against curse-using and hypnotic monsters, but it was only discovered by those players who had stumbled over it and gotten their leg blasted off against an unfair [Save or Die] effect they weren't told about.

Yes… so naturally, those guys with the confident skills to immediately sprint down the path from the very beginning, it was obvious that they were the ones to clear the most mines with their own lives.

And yet this [Cactus-sama], this Kibaou, was blaming those guys who bet everything and led from the front…! Gritting his teeth so hard they ground together, Kirito had those kinds of angry thoughts going through his head, torn between the selfish desire to condemn Kibaou… and the cold and calculating fear that he would uselessly become the target of that irrational blame.

But even as he clenched his fists and did nothing, the little girl sitting next to him stood up from where she had been casually lounging. Her tall companion raised his hand as if to hold her back, but after seeing her face, instead he stood up to quietly follow behind her.

"Ilya-chan." With an uncertain whisper, Asuna also questioned the girl, but she too held back from stopping the fairy-like figure from moving through the crowds towards the central gathering.

She pushed through the crowd, almost skipping as she moved to the front of the crowd, her hands clasped behind her back in a girlish manner. By the time she had gotten to the front row, the oppressive silence following Kibaou's condemnation had changed into something like puzzlement as they watched the fairy-like figure with the silly [Horned Knight] move towards the front.

Finally she came to a stop, staring up at Kibaou with a placid expression and wide eyes.

After she didn't say anything, finally, the slightly unnerved man spoke. "Oye, girl, you got something to say?"

Cocking her head to the side, as if trying to find a way to delicately express herself, finally that girl spoke. "I'm surprised… that you managed to reach such a high level despite being an immature weakling." The words in that light and cheerful voice were not delicate at all.

"What was that, you brat?" He demanded, clenching his fist as he growled. But, in complete fairness, he didn't step forward to loom over the shorter girl or anything like that, although his loud and aggravated voice was intimidating enough just from its nature.

"Blaming others for being better than you rather than just upping your own stats, shouldn't a grown man be a little ashamed of such a childish complaint?" But without being intimidated at all, the girl simply went for the throat with an innocent and quizzical smile.

In the audience, Kirito bit his lip to hold back the undignified snort that resulted from witnessing the eye-popping expression on Kibaou's face.

But even as he sputtered, she went for the kill. "No, wait, in the first place, rather than blaming other players for having slightly more experience, shouldn't you be blaming [Kayaba Akihiko] for trapping everyone in the [Death Game]?" As a finishing move, she tilted her head with the sincere expression of childish confusion one more time.

"Of course I hate that guy the most!" Kibaou roared, before clenching his fist. "But those beta testers, those bastards, rather than sticking around to help out others, they just left everyone behind without helping us at all!"

"I didn't do that." Ilya replied. There was a breathless pause, as the gathered players processed the meaning of her words.

Then, in the shocked silence, Ilya stepped forward, and reached up, stretching her hand straight towards Kibaou's face, pushing up onto the tips of her toes. However, those outstretched fingers didn't even reach his chin.

She glanced over her shoulder. "Shirou," she commanded in a fake whisper, "boost me up so I can pat his head and comfort him." Even though she said it so innocently, she said it so everyone could hear.

"Don't patronize me!" Kibaou shouted, stepping back and swinging his hand, before snapping it forward to point at her. "How can I trust you when you claim to be a [beta tester] just like all those bastards!?"

"Excuse me." At the edge of the opening, where the gathered crowd stood back to allow the speakers space, a tall man stood. His height was above two meters, and he had the body of someone who had maxed out their [STR] not in the game, but in real life. His skin complexion was the deep black of a Kenyan, and his head was a perfectly smooth dome. "I can't vouch for her status as a [Beta Tester], but if it's helping us [New Players], then she is the one that led me through the [Circuit Activation] quest." Pausing for a perfect beat, he then continued to speak. "Although, I can also testify that her personality was like this at that time, too."

Half-amazed, half-relieved laughter drifted through the crowd. Even if it was a bad joke, coming on the end of an unsolicited endorsement, it succeeded in relieving the tension. Seeing that the tide of opinion was turning against him, Kibaou gritted his teeth one more time to speak.

But, even though he was the one that was about to open his mouth, Kirito found that his gaze flipped instead toward the [Self-proclaimed Rune Knight] who had called this meeting, and casually allowed this development. His expression was calm, but it had a hardness, from a clenched jaw and tensed eyebrows, that indicated that he was debating something with himself.

And, Kirito's intuition that he had made a decision was correct. Because, the instant that Kibaou opened his mouth, the knight in blue spoke. "Kibaou-san." Just by saying the other man's name, the attention of the whole crowd was effortlessly gathered. "I understand your pain, and I'm sorry you feel that way." With that, like he was leading up to joining the [anti-Beta faction], the Knight then opened his mouth and spoke one more time. "But what would you say, if I said that I was also one of those [Beta Testers] that you hate so much?"

Kibaou's mouth hung open, as the words he had been about to say abruptly stopped. He closed his mouth, before he spoke. "Diabel-san… you mean…?"

Diabel nodded, with contrition and sorrow in his expression. "I am exactly the kind of [Beta Player] you described. As soon as the rules of the [Death Game] started, I immediately and shamelessly used my [Acquired Knowledge] to gain levels as quickly as possible. Rather than saving people, instead, I recruited strong players to level up even faster." By the time he had finished that opening statement, Diabel was no longer addressing just Kibaou, but the whole gathering. "However! The reason I did so was to save everyone!" With that bald and ambitious announcement, Diabel's statements stopped being apologetic at all. "I wasn't thinking about leaving players behind, but rather, stepping forward to clear the game! I have no intention of abandoning anyone. I want to clear the game as fast as possible, so that the fewest number of people will die and we can return to the [Real World]!" With that pronouncement, he gathered his hands together, bowing his head slightly, before raising it to address the crowd.

"That's why I called everyone here! I used my [Beta Player Advantage] to become as strong as possible as fast as I could, and even so, it's already taken us a month to find just the [First Boss]!" He thrust his head up, and with a glorious expression, addressed the crowd. "But now we have the chance to defeat the [First Boss]. Everyone." Diabel smiled, eyes shifting as he sought out individual faces to address the crowd.

Kirito felt an electric shiver. Because, in that instant their eyes met, Diabel paused. Even though his expression didn't change, even if it was only an instant, a feeling of recognition passed from Diabel to Kirito. That guy… had definitely acknowledged Kirito as a [Fellow Beta Player].

"Everyone gathered here, whether [Beta Player], or [New Player], that doesn't matter." Diabel gathered the words for the finale. "Lend me your strength to defeat the [First Boss] and give everyone without any exceptions the hope that we can be saved!"

And when his fist went into the sky, everyone naturally started cheering.


	9. 3:2 Vs 1F Boss

With 52 people, the most obvious way to divide everyone up was to make a complete [Raid Party] of 48 people and put the remaining four people in their own party, and in their own Raid. Frankly speaking, that's where Kirito thought he would end up. As a solo player, he didn't have the strong bonds with other players that would make anyone request that he party with them, but in the first place, it wasn't arrogance to say he was strong enough that he didn't need the support, either.

But that is not what Diabel did. Instead he split the gathered groups into two balanced [Raids].

It was just a designation, but the [White Raid] was four parties of max size, so out of the 52 volunteers that had gathered, a total of 24 were in that group. Meanwhile, the remaining 28 people were in five parties, although since 28 wasn't evenly divisible by six, the result was that they wouldn't all be maxed out parties.

Frankly speaking, the logic of the division became pretty obvious. Although the groups were approximately balanced, that was really more of a coincidence that people had already tended to organize into maxed out parties where every role was filled to begin with. Since survivability was paramount, when people went out to level, it was natural they would fully embrace the maxim [Safety in Numbers]. It wasn't just an issue of ganging up on mobs, but also that comrades could watch your back for you.

Well, the immediate result was that the [White Raid] and the [Red Raid] were balanced. No, because every party was balanced and everyone was already around [Level 10], it meant that you would have had to work at it to make these two groups asymmetrical.

And the logic was—

"During the Beta Test, the [First Floor Boss] was named [Illfang the Kobold Lord], and he was escorted by a total of [12 Ruin Sentinels] that popped in groups. Assuming that will be the same, the [Red Raid] will attack the Boss, while my [White Raid] will handle the [Ruin Sentinels], or other escort monsters, as they appear."

Diabel had taken the 24 people that were his [Followers], or rather, the people that would be joining his [Guild] once that system was unlocked, and then everyone else was put in the other [Raid]. That could have been a source of concern about unfairness, but at the same time, Diabel had chosen to sacrifice the possibility of the [Last Attack Bonus] and taken on the more difficult to coordinate role of fighting the mooks. Like that, there was no need to criticize him, indeed you could only praise him for his leadership.

Still…

"Is this really going to be okay?" Kirito muttered to no one.

Yes, at this point, he felt something like a [Ruin Sentinel] himself.

"Mou! So rude!" That is what the raid commander said with an adorable pout while Kirito wallowed in concerns. Well, she wandered off to chat with others rather than continue to scold him, so Kirito just watched her go.

In the [Red Raid], composed of four full-sized parties and a fifth party that was only two-thirds full, he was given the effective role of [Commander's Bodyguard] to the [Raid Leader]. Naturally, the under-strength party was the one with the [Raid Leader] in it. Well, he believed in the strength of one of his party members because he had seen what Asuna was capable of with his own eyes, but the abilities of the one called [SHIROU] or even the commander herself, [Von Ilya], were unknown. Well, he would trust in her strength as one beta tester to another, but the guy in the stupid helmet was a complete mystery.

With a huff, she ignored him and turned to the group at large. "Right! Has everyone maxed their buffs?" With a cute voice she asked a slangy question, and a cheer rose up as she smiled at the assembled players.

Even Kirito went "Osu", although he only half-heatedly raised his arm and even then, his voice trailed off. The reason she had become [Raid Commander]… Kirito really hoped it was just because of her overwhelming personality and not because a majority of these players had [Weird Proclivities].

But, even so, he opened his menu to check his stats and equipment, just like everyone else. Everyone had been milling around and casting [Spells]. It was obvious that Diabel was going to give a speech, but he had first announced they would be taking a break here to regain their breath.

How anyone could remain calm in the shadow of the [Boss Door] was a mystery to Kirito. Well, at least the various mobs had been cleared from the area, so there was no need to worry about getting caught off guard. A few players at either end of the hall were functionally sentries as well, although Kirito found his eyes sliding to the [Door] a lot.

He shook his head and went back to his menu.

[Sword Art Online] had a surprisingly inflexible statistics system. Some people would call it simple, but that wasn't quite accurate. Players could only choose to level [Strength] or [Agility], but there were several secondary statistics that were derived from those, as well as accumulated play data. So, like skills, the secondary statistics like [Vitality] got stronger the more players relied on them. So, because the player input was limited to just selecting [STR] or [AGI], it was better to say it was inflexible rather than simple.

At level One, Players started with a score of five in both of their attributes. Each level past that, they received five stat points that they could distribute between them. Therefore, a player that completely specialized in one stat could theoretically have a score of [5 x level] in their chosen stat, while the other remained at the starting value of 5. In the beta, those kinds of unbalanced builds were hard to play, but not impossible. Generally speaking there was an appropriate play style for every stat distribution, from [Absolute Musclehead] to either of the popular [3:2 builds] through to the [Speed Demon]. Kirito himself tended towards the [3:2] favoring [STR] build. Mechanically all distributions might be equal, but considering that equipment had stat requirements and were good for many levels of play, the closer you were to the middle more likely you could equip whatever excellent drops you came across. So, at level 10, Kirito had basic stats of 5 + 9 * 3 = 32 for STR and 5 + 9 * 2 = 23 for AGI.

But, even that mechanical balance had gone away with the [Thaumaturgy Patch].

The first [Spell] that accomplished an effect, that wasn't just [Turn on MP] or [Fill up MP bar], the first one that provided a real benefit, was called [Reinforcement]. When used on humans, it split into two derivative spells, [Reinforce Strength] and [Reinforce Agility]. What they could do was boost your stats to the [Max by Level]. In the words of that super-old NPC in the creepy item shop that unfortunately didn't sell items, Reinforcement was used to [Perfect] what existed, so it could improve it to the absolute natural limit. In game terms, that meant either of the [Reinforce Statistic] spells couldn't improve the scores above [Five Times Level], which was 50 for a level ten player. If someone was capable of improving their stats by 10 with reinforcement, then anything above a natural 40 was suboptimal.

Supposedly the next spell in the [Basic Physical Interference Spell Tree] was called [Alteration]. Assuming from its name that it could raise a stat above the limit of [Five Times Level], Kirito was planning ahead for that by improving both the [Reinforce Strength] and [Reinforce Agility] spells under the possibility that the corresponding [Alter Stat] spells would have them as prerequisites.

Well, the same could be said of weapons. The [Anneal Blade] that Kirito liked so much… in the Beta you could take it to a Blacksmith and they could enhance it. However, when he had tried to get that done here, the NPC had looked at him blankly and asked, "How can I add to something that's already complete?" Standing in front of an NPC with a stupid and hurt expression on his face, Kirito hadn't emotionally realized how much of the game was getting rewritten with the [All supernatural skills are spells] rule until that point.

It was frustrating, but so far, he had only managed to find the [Reinforce Durability] spell. With a heavy sigh, Kirito hefted his sword. He had really wanted to balance out [Sharpness] and [Durability], but it wasn't possible. It was annoying having to enhance his weapon two or three times a day when the spell wore off, too. On the other hand, the increased flexibility that this system gave him could have uses too.

"What's wrong?" Kirito started as he heard the voice come out of the helmet. It wasn't that it was deep or cruel or anything; if anything, it was too normal for someone associated with that [Strange Little Girl] and who wore something that absurd. No, what surprised him was that the man had spoken at all.

"It's not much… I was just regretting that I don't have the [Reinforce Sharpness] spell yet." Kirito answered.

"…If you want, I can do that for you." The helmeted man offered.

Kirito considered that. After a pause, he handed his sword over to the strange man. While the other guy softly intoned [Trace: On], Kirito tried to decided how to say what he wanted to say. Ultimately, he concluded it would be best to be casual.

When the other guy handed the sword back after only a second, Kirito spoke. "Hey… will you sell me the guide to that spell? I would like to be able to do it myself."

The other guy didn't say anything, and Kirito blinked when he equipped the sword. "Plus five to Sharpness…" Kirito said, surprised. "You've already used that [Reinforce Sharpness] spell so many times that you can take the weapon to the maximum value?"

After a hesitant pause, the other guy spoke. "It wasn't anything special. I just used [Reinforcement] to improve the [Sharpness] of the weapon."

Kirito parsed that. "Not the specialized spell [Reinforce Sharpness], but the basic [Reinforcement] magic?"

The helmet slowly nodded. "Even if it's not impressive, [Reinforcement] is really versatile."

Kirito frowned, rubbing his chin. In that case… it just meant that the [Reinforce Whatever] spells were [specialized] forms of the basic spell, rather than [refinements] or [derivatives]. In that case [Reinforcement] should be able to do what all of its specialties could do, possibly at a skill check penalty. Would the spells have an XP synergy between basic and specialized forms? Kirito would have to check. Finally, he simply nodded, putting it out of his mind, before looking at where he assumed the other guy's eyes were. "Well, in any case, thanks." He said with a cheerful smile.

"You're welcome."

Kirito was relieved. Not only was his weapon buffed up better than he could have hoped, but it looked like the mysterious [Helmet-san] was pretty skilled too. Therefore, he didn't have to worry about anyone in his party holding him back. "Ah…" said, stretching his arms. "So you focus on grinding the basic [Reinforcement], huh?" He asked, making conversation. "Do you think you will unlock [Alteration] more quickly that way?"

[Helmet-san], no, [Shirou], paused while he considered that. Kirito was already getting in the habit of referring to him with a stupid nickname. That was no good, so he made the mental effort to use the other guy's name. As someone he wanted to pump for information, politeness would be useful.

Finally, Shirou spoke. "I haven't thought about it."

Kirito blinked. "Eh?"

Shirou shrugged. "I haven't really thought about learning Alteration, just about improving my Reinforcement as much as I can."

Kirito nodded at that. "I see… but, it's logical in an RPG that the magic later in the game is always better, so usually your best bet is to meet the prerequisites to unlock more advanced stuff as fast as possible."

After an inscrutable pause, Shirou responded. "I don't think that's necessarily applicable here."

Kirito paused, his arms extended straight away from his torso and his back bent sideways at a thirty degree angle. Finally he straightened up. "Yeah… somehow, this [Thaumaturgy] stuff seems to different from normal." He nodded. "So you're the type that focuses on improving a few things rather than maxing out your options?"

Shirou nodded. "I don't have talent for anything else, so I'm just focusing on Reinforcement."

Kirito blinked. "It's… really early in the game to be cutting off your options like that, isn't it?" Kirito said. "I mean, have you even tried other spells yet?" Kirito crossed his arms. "I make it a rule to equip everything and try it out at least once." He nodded solemnly. Perhaps failing was embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as that horrible sinking sensation when you realized you'd been doing things wrong all along.

Shirou shifted. Although the helmet guarded his face, his body language looked slightly uncomfortable. "Other spells… I can't even use the spell [Gather Mana]."

Kirito blinked, and then frowned. "I see… if it's like that your options for gathering Prana is limited to just [Generate Od], huh? I hear there are already a couple players like that…. So you'd have to focus on low-cost stuff." Kirito regretted making his conversational partner uncomfortable, but on the other hand, his [Optimize Build] trait had been activated, so his enthusiasm was getting the better of him. By the way, the trait [Optimize Build] wasn't related to the [Sword Art Online] character Kirito, but instead it was intrinsic to the player himself. "What other spells do you know?" He asked.

"After [Circuit Activation] and [Generate Od]…" beginning with that preface, Shirou answered. "After those two, [Reinforcement] and [Structural Grasp]."

Kirito was slightly surprised. "Structural Grasp? Isn't that just an expy for an [Appraise] Skill?" Kirito had it on his spell list too, since it was something with no prerequisites offered by several of the NPC magic teachers. It was a super-low-cost spell that threaded prana through something to determine its composition…supposedly. Actually, it was better and worse than Appraise, since it was different. It was harder to determine the [Col value] of an item, but it delivered more specific information. Kirito had trained it a little bit, but mostly it only gave him vague stuff. "What kind of information can you determine with it?" He asked, curious.

Shirou shrugged. "Well… for example, I used it on your [Anneal Blade] to determine its statistics, so I could [Reinforce] it to its limit."

Kirito considered that. "So… you could have improved the [Sharpness] above five?"

Shirou shook his head. The absurd helmet swung back and forth. "No, the sword would have broken. Trying to go past the limit is like pumping too much water into a tank. It bursts from the inside."

Kirito considered that, and shivered slightly. The only reason why he hadn't performed the experiment [What if you Reinforce Strength above the Level Cap] was because his [Reinforce Strength] couldn't boost his [STR] stat enough. Now… he probably wouldn't be performing that experiment.

…Maybe on a neutral mob, or a horse NPC.

Kirito was going to say more, but their conversation was cut off.

"Okay!" Diabel shouted, standing in front of the door. "Everyone! Is everyone ready?"

Compared to when Ilya asked, the question was answered with much more enthusiasm. A cheer rose up.

Diabel smiled. "Okay! Everyone remembers the plan? The parties will each stay together to support the people in your party, but the parties in my [White Group] will split up to cover each of the Boss Guards. Meanwhile, the parties in the [Red Group] will surround the boss and attack him!"

Another cheer rose up.

Diabel nodded. "Alright! I'm going to open the door, but first…" the smile faded into a more sincere expression. "Everyone… thank you. I'm proud that so many people have the courage to move forward!" When he said that, cheering and clapping began, as he congratulated his companions on their bravery.

"So!" Diabel said, turning and facing the grand door that blocked their way forward. "Like this, let's charge forward!" And, he pushed open the doors.

Shouting and cheering, the [First Floor Raid] had officially begun.

I I I

The helmet was annoying. It muffled his hearing. It cut off his peripheral vision. And it chafed.

Around him, people were shouting advice and encouragement. Shirou was part of the [Anti-Boss Group], but practically he was…

Practically, he wasn't really doing anything. He had intended to defend Ilya and the two others in their party, along with everyone, but that wasn't necessary.

The [One-handed Longsword] was larger and heavier than his normal [One-handed Curved Sword] that he'd had equipped until now, but he'd improved his strength and it wasn't a problem.

This battle was too slow. It was taking too long.

Shirou had defeated Illfang three times. It wasn't that he'd reduced the [Boss HP] to below zero three times, but rather, a cut across the spine, a cut to the femoral artery, a stab that pierced the liver; he had attacked three times, and each one had been a lethal blow. Well, the one to the spine, when he'd been behind the Boss, had dealt extra damage.

But more than anything else, this didn't [Feel like a Battle]. Although everyone possessed the mobility and endurance of elite fighters, including the Boss and the [Ruin Sentinels] that were milling around, nobody was exploiting the heightened mobility to force others into an inferior engagement distance.

These were the elite players, so he didn't need to interfere in their fighting. He didn't need to charge into the fray and stop attacks from reaching them. He didn't need to control the flow of the [mobs] by manipulating position, distance, and the [Hate] mechanic.

No, more than anything else, it was the pace of battle that made it fake, unreal, silly.

Because… there was a [Cooldown] between sword skills. Certainly there was tactics in managing that system. Players covered each other so that they wouldn't be attacked in that moment of weakness. They guided the boss into using them against a player that could negate his heavy blows with a shield, and then simultaneously attacked during the opening.

So, even if he was a novice, he could already distinguish that there was strategy going on here. He was like a neophyte chess player, that had enough knowledge to be impressed by the smooth and confident play of chess masters. However… compared to these players that had practiced working together, he was completely different. To put it another way, he was definitely that neophyte chess player compared to these masters, who couldn't read three moves ahead, let alone see how the flow of the game was progressing. All he could do was stay out of their way.

Ilya was shouting encouragement, and attacking with that extra-large sword.

The girl [Asuna] was striking like light, quickly and confidently responding to Ilya's guidance, letting herself be lined up according to Ilya's judgment, and then firing her sword like a rifle, an attack so fast it couldn't be seen or dodged. It wasn't just the [Iron Rapier] that she had equipped, it wasn't the [Fencing Skill] that she had leveled by continuous improvement. The girl herself was good.

Or [Kirito]. He had the best statistics of every player here. His [Anneal Blade] had the highest parameters of any sword Shirou had seen in the game. It was even better than the [Hardened Iron Longsword] that Diabel had equipped. Furthermore, his skill, [One Handed Straight Sword], was the biggest number that Shirou had seen in any player, for any skill. Simply put, of all the players Shirou had seen in the game, Kirito was mechanically the best.

But, ignore the equipment, ignore the numbers, ignore the metrics, ignore the game. Ignoring all of that, and these two were still talented. Asuna had minimized every secondary motion of her Linear. Anything that wasn't along the line of the sword was reduced to the smallest possible size. But, since small motions were naturally faster than wide motions, reducing the size of everything that pointed away from her attack vector increased the strike speed. Her [Linear] moved in the straightest possible line that minimized every possible motion away from the ideal line. To be cute, it was the most [Linear] possible [Linear]. In comparison, Kirito was [Efficient]. Rather than making every secondary motion as small as possible like Asuna did, he made sure that every secondary motion supported his next move. When he dodged, he didn't just move out of the way of the current attack, but also stepped forward to measure the range for his next move. After swinging his sword, the follow-through while he pulled his sword through the target naturally flowed into a guard position that was similar to the preparation for his next attack.

Shirou quietly followed along as his party stepped back, dodging a wide swing attack by Illfang's [Tulwar]. Once again, they evaded without having to block or parry, while the party on the far side of the boss started building [Hate] by back-attacking.

The strategy Ilya had proposed was simple, elegant, and ruthless: her five parties would surround Illfang in a pentagon formation, and the parties facing Illfang's back would focus on offense while the parties in front would focus on defense. If anyone needed to heal or regroup, they could retreat, and the other parties would close into a square formation to cover them.

Yes, these were all excellent and skilled players. Shirou couldn't keep up with how many moves ahead they were thinking. That was unacceptable. He would have to improve.

However, could he really get stronger working with them?

It was true that they were all master chess players, who could see three moves ahead. He was a neophyte that only knew how the pieces moved.

But, the difference between [Sparring] and [Battle]….

These guys all chose the best possible move.

But real battle was different.

The overwhelming, smothering pressure of Berserker… the inescapable, piercing speed of Lancer… the magnificent and heavy presence of Saber….

No, go even farther back.

As a small boy, all of ten years old, messing around with a sick old man in a dojo.

The cold and machine-like timing of Kiritsugu… the presence that instilled the boy with the understanding of what [Fighting to the Death] really was, even before he truly grasped how truly difficult it was to [Move Like a Hero].

Yes.

It was true they could die. It was true this was a fight to the death. However… this fight lacked the same crushing urgency as a true [Battle].

It was too fair. In a real battle, you didn't choose the perfect chess maneuver. You moved all of your pieces as fast as possible without any regard for the other player's turn. The fundamental unfairness of it was the point. You crushed their options with your own onslaught. The goal of battle preparation was to have an unfair advantage.

After all, hadn't he had all these thoughts? Hadn't he had all this time to think all this through?

Illfang turned, and attacked the group on the far side as their [Hate] value increased. His [Diagonal] skill was intercepted and deflected by a polearm user, and Shirou matched the timing of his partymembers as they used their [Sword Skills] to damage the enemy. Soon they would drag his attention back to them, and then the party on the other side would also get to [Back Attack]. The bonus damage from the [Back Attack] was just a bonus. Ilya's real goal, she had said, was to reduce Illfang's [DPS] by forcing him to switch targets as frequently as possible.

But it was simply too fair. A real battle was decided in an instant when someone failed to defend and died. The crushing, fearsome presence of death converging from every direction...

Illfang could kill them if his sword connected. However, the attack frequency was unrealistically slow, and he was mechanically attacking whomever attacked him while disregarding weak points. A real monster would threaten Shirou with death at least three times a second. Various lines of attack would be poured on him, and the most dangerous one would be selected, so the enemy would have the best chance to murder him. There would be no hesitance, there would be no pause, and there would be no cooldown. If the attack failed, immediately pour new vectors on the opponent and pick the best one again.

Compared to that, Illfang was too diffuse. The pressure of a killing attack would line up, but dissipate after only one attack. A true killer… would maintain the pressure until the opponent died. They would not let up, they would not slow down, and they would not relent. [Continuously attack until the enemy died]… that was a true engagement between killers.

They had already been fighting for ten minutes. In that time, the [Anti-Guards Group] had defeated two lines of [Ruin Sentinels], and was working through the third. Two [HP Bars] had been cut away from Illfang and they were steadily working through a third.

"Look out!" Shirou simply dropped his thinking and stepped forward. He swung his sword, dropping low, covering Ilya's retreat as he slammed his blade into Illfang's massive Tulwar. Both swords lost durability, although the Tulwar lost more. Well, it was so much tougher even at a worse rate of loss it would still last longer.

"Ah!" Ilya looked up. "Asuna!" She ordered, as Shirou pulled her back.

"Right!" Asuna stepped forward, and launched a [Linear] at Illfang while it was in cooldown.

Behind them, Diabel's party finished a [Ruin Sentinel]. Since that meant there was only one left, rather than get in the way swarming it, they returned to a rest position and let the designated party handle the remainder. Although they had to move around more, they had only spent a third of the battle actually fighting.

Shirou frowned. Ilya was breathing hard. His whole party was breathing hard. "Ilya… are you alright?"

Ilya looked at him with an odd expression. "Of course! Isn't my HP at maximum?"

Kirito stepped forward, and swung his sword into a [Horizontal], adding a step on the end by increasing the swing length. As a result, he was out of range of Illfang's attack when the cooldown occurred. "No… she's getting fatigued mentally." He paused, then added, "We all are."

Asuna agreed, a slight frown on her face. Recognition, insight, and annoyance crossed her face all in one expression. Clearly, she fully understood.

Shirou did too. Even if the battle was moving at a slow pace, maintaining sharp concentration for so long was exhausting. He didn't have any problems, or rather, he didn't have any problems yet. That was simply a result of the superior training he'd received. "I see." He said. "So, should we consider pulling back?"

Behind them, there was a cheer as the presumptive [Last Ruin Sentinel] was defeated. At about the same time, Illfang's third HP bar was pushed into the red.

Shirou grimly focused himself. "Ilya… if you're having difficultly, you can retreat and let me finish it, okay?"

Ilya frowned at him, but he wouldn't allow any objections. He would simply overrule her if it was a question of life-or-death and accept the consequences.

I I I

Kirito grunted, sliding out of the way of the [Diagonal]. At this rate, the [Red Raid Group] might not be able to finish the battle. In terms of HP they were on track to do just fine, but the Raid's [Mental Endurance] parameter was going down too fast. Even though they were over-leveled, the pressure of [Death] was too exhausting. It wasn't like this [Boss Fight] had lasted all that long, but the terror of fighting a [Death Game] compared to playing a [Video Game] increased the difficulty incomparably.

"Everyone!" Diabel shouted. "Now, the [White Raid] will support the [Red Raid]! Let's win!"

With a strong cheer, the fighting strength facing Illfang was doubled.

Kirito was relieved, and stepped back with his party, letting the reinforcements take the lead. It was the same sensation as using [Switch] with another player to let them cover you.

And he realized.

He made eye contact with Ilya, and the pouting scowl on her face tightened as she wordlessly agreed with him.

That had been Diabel's plan from the beginning. Although it looked like the [White Raid] was given the thankless and hard-to-coordinate task of dealing with the [Ruin Sentinels], on an individual level, ganging up on the guards felt completely different than surrounding [Illfang]. If you weren't perfectly careful against Illfang, he could kill you in one hit. That wasn't the case against the [Ruin Sentinels], so it simply wasn't as terrifying to fight them when you could retreat and get healed. No, in the first place, the amount of time the [White Raid] had been fighting was lower than the [Red Raid], so the exhaustion wouldn't accumulate as much either.

After the [Red Raid] softened up the boss, the [White Raid] would finish it.

Kirito couldn't help but smile, chagrined.

What was the expression? Diabel was having his cake and eating it too. Not only did present himself as the [Self-Sacrificing Leader], he also maximized his chance at the [Last Attack]. No, even if he didn't get it personally, the item would probably go to someone in his [Future Guild].

The HP Bar decremented and the last sliver of the third bar was gone. A cheer went up. The battle was going smoothly, and there was only one bar left.

Well, a maximized chance was not the same as a guarantee. After all, when the boss switched weapons when his last bar hit red, the flow of the fight would change. At that time, he had no doubt that Ilya would be happy to try and [Steal the Last Attack] like Kirito would be.

Wait.

Since the beginning, Illfang had a Tulwar equipped.

His attack pattern had been the [Last Red Pattern] with the equipped Tulwar from the Beta, used from the beginning of this fight.

…Including the Axe-and-Buckler pattern from the Beta, and the Tulwar pattern used here, didn't that mean whatever happened during this [Last Red Pattern] would be Illfang's [Third Transformation]?

"Illya… Asuna." He shouted. "When the HP hits the red zone… be ready."

Kirito's [Gamer Instincts] were warning him that something bad was going to happen.

I I I

[Illfang the Kobold Lord].

Based on the traditional motif of Kobolds as [Dog Monsters], rather than the [Lesser Dragons] that they had become in modern media.

As the first [Floor Boss], it had been critical that Illfang set the tone and flavor of the game. Compared to the [High-Difficulty Bosses] or even the [Final Boss], you could even say Illfang was more important because the [First Boss] would establish the player's expectations. Atmosphere was a critical but hard-to-measure element in games, especially in SAO, which offered unparalleled immersion.

…He didn't want to admit it, but the reason that the cheap [Last Red Overkill Mode] had been installed in the [Beta] was specifically to wipe parties. Even at that time he had intended to sacrifice game balance along with everything else for this scenario, but he had been vaguely offended during the meeting in which such an unbalanced thing had been suggested. It had offended his sensibilities as a game designer, even if he had agreed with the rationale.

But that was like another life time.

It was an affectation just like this [Scrying Effect], but Kayaba tucked his hand in the pocket of his long white lab coat. The [First Boss]. With a feeling like pride, he watched the players confront it. Soon, the first concrete departure towards the [Common Sense of Magi] would be forced on them.

Kayaba believed that true ingenuity was achieving maximum effect with minimum input. From that perspective, a genius was somebody who didn't miss any opportunities that appeared before them. A genius perfectly exploited every single chance to multiply their effects.

The [Last Red Overkill Mode] would be used exactly as it had been intended. It would force the players to stop taking the flow of the game for granted, even if it was unfair.

The players had already destroyed three HP bars. No, they had destroyed almost three-and-a-half, the final HP bar had just crossed into the yellow zone.

It was tiny and hesitant. But Kayaba Akihiko sincerely smiled.

I I I

One Snow stepped forward and swung his sword. It was quickly becoming his signature technique: a [Diagonal] at such an extreme angle it was more accurate to call it [Vertical]. The long sword in his hands glowed yellow, and pushed the huge blade held by the snarling dog-monster into the ground, pinning it.

Flanking him, Itagaki stepped forward, thrusting the spear into the boss' flank.

A cheer went up as the HP fell into the red zone.

But it tapered off in confusion. No, it was cut off by fear. No, it was simply overwhelmed by the scream.

Illfang's mouth was open. It was a horrid screech, the keening howl of a wounded beast. The raw noise of it forced everyone back. Even One Snow took a step back.

The scream built, growing louder and longer, and it modulated. It was like dozens of voices that were losing coherence, falling out of unison, crying out at their own pace. It was like Illfang opened his mouth and a dozen voices screamed from inside of him.

Those other voices climbed in register, like flutes. Somehow, they didn't sound like a dog anymore. It didn't sound like a mammal, but something else. Something alien.

Illfang's flesh rippled. His muscles convulsed. He was squirming and writhing in place.

That wasn't correct.

The crazy ripples along his back didn't move along the length of his limbs or obey any rule of physiology. They were ripples like burrowing snakes without any reason moving at random under his hide.

Inside of Illfang, horrible things squirmed.

"Everyone!" Diabel shouted. In the instant everyone else froze, the [Rune Knight] bravely stepped forward. "Fall back! I'll handle it!"

One Snow took control of his body. He raised his sword to a guard position.

He would support the [Hero Diabel].

I I I

Shirou reached up and pushed the helmet off. He couldn't afford to have his vision or hearing compromised. Like most of the [Red Raid Group], he'd fallen back. Or rather, he was standing between the exhausted players and the boss in case it attacked them. That wasn't the way its [Hate] worked, but according to what Ilya had said it would change modes when its HP went red.

It was definitely changing modes.

Its eyes rolled back. It was withering as it was devoured from the inside and stitched together.

Diabel shouted and charged forward.

Shirou also charged forward. Somehow, he knew Diabel's attack wouldn't be enough. He didn't think it would end so neatly and easily. That uneasiness in his heart spurred him forward.

He saw Diabel's sword swing. Shirou had only taken two steps towards them.

The sword dug in, but it wasn't enough. The sword caught in Illfang's body like the resistance was too high. Inside the wound, it wrenched in place as it was grabbed by something, and Diabel stumbled, swinging back as his hand holding his sword jerked his whole body short.

Shirou finished the third step.

Inside the glowing wound, that shed red pixels instead of blood: There were worms in there. They were long, and thin, but they were slowly getting thicker. They leapt out of the wound, they wound around the sword, they were stitching the sides shut as they clamped the edges with their teeth (of course they had teeth) and pulled it shut.

Illfang's HP bar was yellow. It was slowly getting bigger as the worms stitched him together, inside and out. No, they weren't just stitching him together. They were threading through the muscles, drawing the tendons tighter, increasing his power. According to what Shirou could see through that Tulwar, the [Strength] parameter it was being held with was slowly increasing.

For the fourth time, Shirou put one foot in front of the other. Even as he did so, he could tell it wasn't enough. Just one time, out of all the times he'd practiced at school, just once had he had pulled back an arrow and seen that it wouldn't hit, and right now he felt that same inevitability.

With a jerky motion, even while he was hunched over, Illfang's arm whipped up and around in an unnatural way, pulling the sword back. Diabel's gaze, everyone's gaze, followed that sword as it abruptly flipped up.

His hand clenched the sword and he stepped the fifth time. Even it if wasn't enough, he absolutely wouldn't give up. He would absolutely do it somehow.

But… it wasn't enough.

This sword wasn't enough. These [Skills] weren't enough. These character statistics weren't enough. His running speed wasn't enough. The motion library of the [Sword Skills] were not enough.

However, he couldn't blame it all on the game like a child. His own magecraft was too limited. Even in the real world, even if he was capable of everything he could do for real in here, he could not reinforce his body past too-low limits. If he couldn't even reach them, whatever he could create with Projection was meaningless; even creating a bow with an arrow would be too slow. He couldn't do anything else but reinforcement and projection, even in reality.

He didn't have anything that was enough to win. He didn't have any way to save this person in front of him.

So if he couldn't win, he just had to imagine something that could.

Yes, even if he equipped [Run] or [Acrobatics], he would not be able to reach Illfang in time to save Diabel.

This holographic body couldn't be reinforced any more than it already was. There wasn't a [Sword Skill] that would allow him to win. Noting in the entire [World of Aincrad] was enough.

However... inside Emiya Shirou was a much better world.

It was only inside him. It was inside only him. He judged the concept of creation and loved it. Even then, it was incomplete. It was indistinct and lacked form. He hypothesized the basic structure and was amazed by it. It was literally transparent. Because it had been made by fairies, he could not duplicate the composition material nor reproduce the skill of its making. But in exchange, he could sympathize with the experience of growth and reproduce the accumulated years more perfectly than anyone. Even his contractor who had held it could not understand this sword as completely as he could. He could not excel every manufacturing process. But those he comprehended, for the limited parts he could reproduce, he made it perfect. Even if it was fake, even if it was incomplete, even if Projecting it was impossible, he adored all of it.

Inside him, there was a golden sword on a hill. A girl had held that sword, and fought battles with it. Even against taller and stronger knights, even against giants and dragons, she had held her ground with that sword. That legend was completely captured by his imagination.

Even against that iron-black giant, even while wounded, she had stood her ground. That was something he'd Grasped with his own eyes.

Inside his mind, his circuit cocked, and the sword was loaded into the tube as it filled with od.

Comparing himself to her using that crude image was laughable. However, comparing this holographic goblin to the iron-black giant was also laughable. Real greatness was not required. As long as what he achieved was less pathetic-

The sword was loaded, and he pulled the trigger in his soul.

The missile called [Emiya Shirou] was launched. The sword in his hands was primed.

With an impact like a detonating warhead, the [Deathblow] of [Illfang the Kobold Lord] was intercepted and completely blown off course.

I I I

When Shirou had thrown off his helmet and started running, Kirito could already tell it would be useless.

Even that guy with the painfully orthodox kendo stance standing three meters behind Diabel couldn't do anything. And they were practically on the other side of the map.

Still… it wasn't like Shirou had started running and Kirito had followed him. If Shirou had pulled ahead it was because he was an [AGI] type with a higher max speed. Simply put, if they took off running at different times, that was a result of their individual reaction times to the same stimulus.

It wasn't that Kirito was trying to follow him. It was that they had the same impulse at the same instant, so they both took off running.

Kirito clenched his teeth, and tried to run faster.

He wouldn't… he definitely couldn't let someone die in front of him again!

And then, Shirou took off.

Kirito faltered, hesitating for a step before powering through to keep running.

It was like a limiter had been removed along with the [Stupid Helmet] and the other guy had turned on his afterburners. That guy blasted forward in a blur, and his sword was like a streak of light. But it wasn't glowing like a sword skill. The effect was different, like Shirou was wreathed in prana squeezed out of his body.

Even so, the Tulwar came down like a guillotine.

And that launched sword exploded into it, blasting it off course like they were two cannonballs that had impossibly collided midair. A high-pitched metallic ring burned their ears.

But that sword didn't stop.

It rotated around like a moon collapsing into a planet at terminal velocity as Shirou spun in a circle and plunged the edge into Illfang's extended shoulder. The form was perfect, even so the worms tried to grab it, but he simply blasted through the boss and all the worms with raw power.

Illfang staggered, the force of the blow ripping through him dragging him towards the ground. He reared back, curling up and gathering strength to strike—

But it was useless. That sword wasn't like a cannonball blasting into him, but rather, an avalanche that swept into him like a falling wall. Whenever it hit it simply followed through and hit again. If it missed, if it was deflected, it didn't pause or hesitate and simply blasted toward the boss again.

All told, from the instant the sword completely blew that Tulwar out of the way, it only took three seconds.

In those three seconds, five deep gouges where opened up, and each blow chopped away HP just as it ripped open the holographic flesh.

After three seconds, the HP bar was cut down into nothingness.

[Congratulations!]

Illfang wasn't defeated. He was slaughtered.

Even as the trumpet fanfare played and the game praised them, no one spoke.

The only sound was the ragged breathing from that guy, standing in an unyielding stance holding that sword in a dangerous manner, with steam rising from his sides like he'd boiled himself in a pot of magic and climbed out of the witches' cauldron.

This guy…

Was he really human?


	10. 3:3 After 1F Boss

His body didn't hurt.

He'd exceeded his limits by wringing too much od out of his body, so the expected sensation like his blood vessels had been twisted around his bones was there. It was the familiar spiritual pain as his soul protested that he'd wrung too much of himself out.

However, his muscles weren't torn and his joints weren't dislocated. Compared to how much he'd exceeded his spiritual limits, the gap between forcing his body to move like Saber and what his body was capable of was wider. Moving at high speed was easier for this holographic body than his real self, but he had still required more speed, more strength, than the limit would allow. Therefore he'd exceeded his limits. Obviously he should expect the pain of tearing himself apart. But that sensation was completely absent.

As a result of pumping so much od through his Circuits, his temperature had gone up so much that the [System] was simulating a steam effect rising from him. The almost delirious state of the corresponding fever wasn't there. Instead of any kind of physical pain, there was only the generalized numbness in his bones and muscles.

But as compensation for the lack of pain, instead he received [HP damage]. Right now, his HP bar was in the yellow zone, and from a glance it was only a sliver away from the red zone. In a direct numerical sense that made him approximately three-fourths dead.

If he extrapolated the time they'd swung Caliburn together onto this action, then 75% of [Killing Himself] was about accurate.

There was a trumpet fanfare.

Shirou looked around. There were 51 other people present. He counted quickly as he swept his eyes across them. Injuring himself by this much was perfectly acceptable. As compensation for no one dying, dealing that amount of damage to himself was a bargain he'd accept without hesitation every time.

Truly, there was every reason for his delighted smile.

I I I

"What the fuck was that!?" In the church-like silence of the [Boss Room], a single voice cried out with a demand. Even if his question was excessively rude, Kirito found that he wholeheartedly agreed with that Cactus' words. In his admittedly limited experience with the other man he was already willing to call that a [Rare Event].

"Seriously, what just happened?" With a strident cry, the one named Kibaou stormed forward, with an amazed and disgusted expression on his face.

With the extraordinary atmosphere gone, Kibaou's words reminded everyone they could speak. A buzz of talking rippled across the players. There were happy exclamations as people celebrated their success. But, they were like lone islands in a dark and distrustful sea. There was a sick sensation of expectation that spread across the gathered players.

"You're pretty ungrateful, huh."

Once again, the [Fairy] calmly and boldly interrupted the glaring and glowering [Cactus].

Seeing the anger in his eyes as his gaze turned from Shirou to Ilya, everyone that stood between those two instinctively stepped back. More than anything else, it was the social instinct that they shouldn't get in the way of the confrontation between these two. Basically, everyone was pushed aside by the intensity of their confrontation. Asuna, who stood behind Ilya, was not exempt. She didn't back off, but after hesitantly raising her hand, dropped. Instead, she simply stood by her friend during this confrontation.

Kirito, who was standing the vertex of a triangle relative to the line that went between them, suddenly felt a sensation of danger. Once, his father had taken the family on a tour of a particle physics research facility. The line between them was like the emission line from the laser that had been the central attraction of that facility. It was completely invisible from the side, but somehow there was a sensation that standing where it could cross your body was just asking to get cut in half.

However, rather than just lash out in an explosion, the expression on that guy's face was more sullen. "You… you self-proclaimed beta tester, how can I trust even one thing you say?"

Ilya cocked her head to the side, like a bird that was examining something it didn't understand. Kirito had seen that expression plenty of times outside the game, but mostly on crows before they examined something by tearing at it with their beaks.

"I don't understand." Ilya announced. "What are you even complaining about?" Ilya tapped her cheek with her finger, as her other hand supported the elbow tucked at her side. "How can you be angry that someone beat the boss? Are you just throwing a tantrum because we didn't let you perform the [Last Attack], or is it something even more childish?"

"You…" his voice had grown dark. His eyes were hooded. "You think I'm just jealous?" He growled, and threw his hand out. "Of course I'm jealous!" With that bald and shameless announcement, he continued to shout. "Any Netgamer would be jealous to see someone use such an amazing skill! However!" Kibaou took a deep breath, and pulled his arms taunt to the sides, visibly reigning in his desire to flail about. While he was doing that, Kirito reflected that the [Rare Event] called [Agreeing with Cactus] had been triggered again, but somehow it felt different. "The problem isn't that some players are beta players. It's the secrecy!" Kibaou swept his eyes across everyone gathered. "Everyone gathered here wants to be the strongest player, but this isn't just a game! If someone like that is so strong, then why did he wait until Diabel-san was in danger of dying to act! Letting others suffer for your own insecurity, that's what I can't trust!"

"Kibaou."

The voice that called out was not Ilya's. It was warmer, more confident. Compared to Kirito, it drew a vertex of an even sharper triangle, so he had to turn his head.

Yes, the [Rune Knight] himself had spoken. He was sitting on the ground. He still had a trembling and amazed look, as if he wasn't certain until now that he could support his own weight after his close brush with death. But, the act of calling everyone's attention to him seemed to help him master himself.

With a simple gesture, he held his hand out, above and across from him, to the man that saved him. There was a moment of hesitation in the crowd, as everyone understood the weight of that symbolism. The only one that did not hesitate was Shirou, who immediately reached out to take the extended hand in his own, and pull the sitting man up so he could stand on his own feet.

Smiling widely, Diabel stepped forward. "Kibaou, if you're going to react like that, can you really blame them for keeping their true strength a secret?"

"Even so!" Kibaou began, but something in the warm smile of the [Rune Knight] stopped him.

"Let me tell you a story." Diabel began. "During the [Beta], there was a player who focused on PvP. It's not exceptional that there are players like that, but this player was special. Rather than simply staying on one side of the division between PvP and PvE camps, he actively reached out to drag people in. More than anything, he enjoyed the sense of superiority that came from winning Duels against players that had grown mentally rigid while playing against the computer. His favorite tactic to force those Duels was to ambush players in the field with MPK or some other method, gather their dropped equipment when they died, and then when they respawned, bet that dropped equipment on a [Duel Challenge]."

Yes. It was called a [Devil's Bargain] to accept the duel, because the player had deliberately named himself [Akuma]; it was faster and easier than going back to the field on the gamble your equipment would still be there, but it was a frustrating proposition. Kirito had encountered him three times. Once had been a simple challenge that Kirito had dismissed. Twice had been Monster Player Kill attempts, MPKs, where Diabel had created an ambush of too-powerful monsters for the sake of looting the corpse, but Kirito hadn't fallen to them. Well, Kirito was 90% confident he understood the remainder of the anecdote at this point.

Diabel smiled. "This player had every intention of continuing during the full launch, but the name [Akuma] had been selected by another player. To maintain the [Devil] theme in naming, he resorted to the Polish language." It was a painful smile. "That's the origin of the name [Diabel]."

"No…" Kibaou was the one that whispered, with a voice like he'd been betrayed.

"But." Diabel powered through, with a simple connecting word that indicated his story was not complete. "Then Kayaba Akihiko officially launched the game, and it wasn't a game anymore. It's not just that the state changed from [Player vs Player Gaming] to [Murdering Each Other], but [SAO] itself was no longer really a game, was it?" Diabel raised his hands. "It's not that I'm ashamed of my past, but the environment itself changed. [SAO] is no longer where I blow off steam from stress at my job. Now, it's an existence where we struggle against death."

"That's…" Kibaou swallowed. "It's not the same!"

"Isn't it?" Gently, Diabel challenged those words. "Kibaou, can you really say that whatever you're afraid of is definitely worse than the truth of [Diabel]?"

Kibaou grimaced, a conflicted emotion crossing his face, as he found he could not deny those words. But, even if he wanted to sink into the ground, he found himself compelled to answer by those warm eyes. "No."

"I forgive you."

It was a voice out of nowhere. It was soft, and quiet, but since it was said into that silence, it was no problem to hear it.

The boy that spoke flushed. It wasn't something you could see because of the mask stretched across the bottom half of his face, but the way he flinched and shrunk into himself slightly when everyone turned to him, the way he lowered his head, was exactly the same body language that matched blushing. But, he firmed himself, and met Diabel's eyes. The mismatched weapons in his hands were gripped more tightly. "When you asked me to join your party, I was amazed at your audacity. But… my appearance is completely different compared to the beta, and I was running a different build then and my name was completely different, so… so I realized after a day or two that you honestly didn't know that I had already encountered you before." He swallowed. "I mean, that, when I compare the frustration of the beta, to the way that you've been here, it's like night and day. So, that is, as someone that was trolled by you personally, I forgive you."

"For me it's different." The person that spoke was almost as tall as Shirou. Kirito ruefully thought the audience must look ridiculous, as their heads avidly turned back and forth in perfect synchronization like dogs that were alertly tracking a ball.

In terms of public speaking ability, the one that spoke was much closer to Diabel than the hesitant boy. His thick arms were crossed, his two-handed sword was slung over his back, and he confidently made eye contact from a naturally high height parameter.

"I'm one of the so-called [New Players]." He announced. "For me, what drew me in was the [Sword Arts], because I thought it would be a chance to practice my kendo. But, after the, uh," here he paused, casting about for how to say it, "the official launch, as you call it, I was uncertain, and just wandered about. But Diabel-san recognized my talent, and asked me to join his party and clear the floor, and then the game." He smiled. "I was a little amazed at the audacity, but at the same time, I was proud that he recognized my strength. And now, I'm proud to have been a part of the first clearing group, that protected everyone." With that, he nodded to Diabel. Yes, Kirito thought, his [Public Speaking] skill definitely had more points that the last guy. Not only did he end on a higher note, but he had the humility and compunction to clearly hand the chair of the meeting back to the main speaker when he finished.

Diabel's smile was almost vulnerable. "Hexadecimal… One Snow… thank you. I'm not worthy of so much esteem, but I will do my best so that I'll become worthy." He paused, gathering himself together, before finally turning himself back to that Cactus guy.

"Kibaou…" Diabel asked. "Like this, can you believe in everyone?"

Kibaou had a complicated expression on his face. Halfway, he was frustrated that he'd essentially been defeated so utterly that surrender was the only option, but at the same time, he also had a look on his face that called only be called [Hope]. He reached up, rubbing the back of his head as he cast his eyes at the ground, before he finally looked up. "Diabel-san…when you found a guild, let me join it, okay?"

Someone started cheering. It was infectious, so it spread quickly. Kirito smiled. Rather than the same sense of joy as others, it was more like relief. However, feeling the same elation that everyone else did even if it was for the more cynical reason that somehow the raid hadn't dissolved into complaints and recriminations (this time), it was certainly true that he was happy just like everyone else.

The cheers tapered off. Into that natural lull, the raid leader perfectly picked up the timing. "Everyone!" Diabel shouted, thrusting his fist into the air. "Let's climb the stairs and look out across the second floor!"

In a surge, everyone moved forward. It had an atmosphere like a shrine parade. It was true they were laughing and cheering, but compared to when they'd unlocked floors in the beta, there was a delicate but indisputable emotional sensation that was completely new. Like when the shrine itself was carried past you, and the vague feeling that holiness was real crept up on you.

Kirito couldn't help but get swept up in it. At the same time, his gaze fell across the crowd, and he felt himself pulled back to his party.

Asuna was smiling.

That smile, Kirito just shared in it. It was a warm smile, but the feeling like it was aimed only at him… Kirito smiled back.

"Congratulations." Like that, Asuna mirrored the floating icon that had timed out while the raid was confronting itself rather than the boss.

"GJ." Without wondering whether she would recognize the gamer term, Kirito automatically replied.

When Shirou wandered over to join them, still with his own heartbreakingly sincere smile, Kirito smiled, and also wished him well.

Ilya silently held up the helmet.

Kirito snorted.

With an expression that was ten, no, twenty times more dignified than Kirito thought would be possible in that circumstance, Shirou reequipped the [Stupid Helmet].

"Ilya-chan", Asuna said. Kirito noticed that the san was gone. Asuna spoke with the careful tone that Kirito recognized his mother used when his sister was sulking. "Is something wrong?"

"Doesn't it bother you?" Ilya asked. She wasn't addressing Asuna, or even Kirito. Rather, she was looking directly at Shirou. Somehow, it was obvious she was reading his face even though it was completely obscured.

After a pause, Shirou spoke. His voice was quiet, and the conviction was absolute. "No."

Kirito felt like someone who pushed the skip button during the opening animation of a game, and as a result, was thrust immediately into a tutorial battle without any context. "Does what bother him?" He finally asked. He regretted it immediately. The look Ilya gave him indicated that he the consequences of losing the tutorial battle would be extremely dire. And that he'd just made a critical mistake.

"Getting upstaged by Diabel!" She said. Oh, of course. Kirito nodded solemnly, as if that was a completely reasonable thing to be so concerned about.

"I mean," Ilya paused, frowning, "He completely took your victory from you, onii-chan!" She tugged on his sleeve. "Even though it was you that did everything, and even after the dramatic reveal of your real identity, he still went and completely made it about him!"

Shirou didn't speak. Since they had fallen behind the rest of the raid to speak, it was only then that the four of them reached the base of the stairs. Well, buying space for some privacy while they talked was easy since the remainder of the group was excitedly pushing ahead.

Shirou had chosen his words. "No one died. No one was hurt. Everyone was saved. Compared to that, things like that are irrelevant."

"Real Identity?" Kirito asked in a murmur. Once again, he received a look like he'd made a big mistake, but somehow, he had discovered that it was just a tutorial, so he wasn't concerned.

Ilya seemed to have grasped that, so she changed modes, but only a little bit, because the new mode was halfway between pouting and bragging.

"Un!" Ilya nodded her head. "You saw him dramatically throw his helmet off. Like that, everyone could see his face, and I'm certain at least some of the people there recognized him as the [Sixth Ranger]!"

Once again, Kirito found himself snorting. Not at absolutely serious way she had declared it, but the pause in his stair climbing when Shirou winced at the nickname. In his mind, Kirito solemnly clicked the [rename] box and entered the new value, which was at least four times more superior to even [Helmet-san].

"Sixth Ranger?" Asuna asked, with a confused look on her face. It was the kind of confusion that resulted when someone thought the probability was 20% a dumb joke on them and 80% that it as a targetless dumb joke.

Kirito decided to field her question. "[Sixth Ranger]." He nodded in a serious manner. "In a super-sentai show, the title referring to the extra party member outside the main cast. Despite not fitting in with that main cast, he shows up out of nowhere and abruptly wins the episode's battle because he's unbalanced and OP. You could say he's a reliable trump card, but on the other hand, that's exactly why he doesn't fit in."

"That's kind of rude…." Asuna said. Kirito winced at her threatening tone.

"Mou!" Ilya complained, and shot a black look at Kirito. "Stop making Shirou sound like a killstealer!" However, rather than challenge him to a duel as he somewhat expected, instead she tugged on Shirou's hand. "Oniichan! You should defend yourself!"

Shirou wasn't paying attention. He'd pulled ahead of the party as he studiously ignored the banter, but he had paused, not moving as he stared in front of him.

Belatedly Kirito realized from the lighting effects they'd reached the top of the stairs. He let Ilya step in front of him so she could stand right beside Shirou, and in turn Kirito himself stepped over so that Asuna could mount the last step and look over across Ilya's other shoulder herself.

The sun was setting. Long red lights cast deep shadows across the grassy hills of the second floor. From the path down the side of the hill they emerged from, the central town of the second floor, [Urbus], was visible lights in the twilight. Wind blew and the grass waved like a placid green ocean.

In front of them, players laughed and jogged around, walking and skipping down the hillside like excited children. Somehow, compared to the beautiful scenery laid out before them, so many voices raised in excited chatter was better than the BGM.

Ilya was the one that broke the spell. "Come on come on!" She said, tugging on Shirou's hand. "Don't just stand there watching, let's go too!" Shirou allowed Ilya to tug him forward, although it was pretty clear to Kirito he'd rather stay back and just watch from the outside for a little bit.

"Yes." Asuna said. "Let's." And, when she smiled at Kirito, he automatically smiled back and fell in step as she also began to cheerfully descend the hill.


	11. 3:4 KC4BG 2

"Everyone!" Diabel shouted. He stepped forward and prepared the stance for a [Diagonal]. The sword art charged up and he could feel himself on the edge of the system assist launch. There would be no better time than now. The boss was transforming somehow, but SAO didn't have a system where bosses where immortal during transformations; instead they had to move out of reach somehow. So, there was no better time. "Fall back! I'll handle it!"

Before it had a chance to regen more HP, he would kill it with a strong attack. With his [Runes], it wouldn't be impossible at all.

Diabel used the skill.

It was perfect. It was clean and swift and absolutely without flaws. His sword cut deeply into the enemy and he could see the HP decrement.

However, something went wrong. His sword caught. He was tugged in place. No, he was jerked aside as the sword was ripped from his hand like he'd unexpectedly buried it in stone.

He tumbled to the ground, and rolled, but failed to get out of the way.

The Tulwar went up in an erratic but terrifyingly fast way. He stared up, and it was like watching a pile of bricks on a scaffold teeter over the edge while he was absently walking along a construction site.

The sword came down.

[Game Over].

…

"Ho." It was a rich and expressive voice that spoke. His back stiffened. Somehow, Diabel knew he lost to the speaking ability of that voice and it frustrated him.

"Two in a row." With a tone like delighted musing, the voice approached him. No, the man who owned that wonderful voice approached him. Diabel was sitting just like he'd been in the game, but now he was on the carpet between two pews halfway to the altar of a church. Walking towards him was a tall priest with a warm and unreliable smile, as he continued to speak. "A true come-from-behind turnover."

"But forgive me, for indulging my own musings." The man said, bowing slightly, his hands clasped in front of him. He did not offer a hand of assistance while Diabel stood up.

"Welcome." The man was dressed like a priest of the church, wearing the black and the crucifix. "To Kotomine's Church, for Bad Guys."

Diabel considered that. He chose his words carefully, and then used them. "Are you the devil?"

For a single instant the man looked flummoxed, and then—he laughed. It was a deep and delighted sound as if Diabel had told the most perfect joke that the man had ever heard.

"No." The priest replied. "It's true that I am but an impure sinner, but I am a mere human." He smiled at the joke, as he added a second punch line like only he would get it. "I am the same as you."

"I see." Diabel spoke in a reserved manner. "Is this a purgatory, then?"

"Are you so certain this isn't Heaven?" The priest asked. The tone was completely sincere, but the question absolutely wasn't. "If you are so convinced of your own damnation, then even a priest cannot object. However, it is also my duty to extend the absolution of sin through confession and penance." Somehow, the priest's smile was completely genuine. "It's just my own vain pride, but I'm confident in my ability to drag out the darkness in your heart and expose it to the light."

That absolutely did not comfort Diabel at all. "If this isn't Hell, or purgatory, or Heaven, then…"

"It is beyond the ending." The priest spoke with appropriate reverence. "The hint corner that extends beyond death itself to those condemned by the caprice of a story."

Something like a seed of hope was planted in Diabel's heart. He could feel it expand like pressure on his lungs. "A… hint corner?"

"Indeed." The priest said. "In the boundary at the edge of life, those with regrets are given the option to go back and correct their mistakes."

Diabel digested that. "Are you telling me I can still make it?"

The priest nodded with sincere warmth. "No."

"…No?"

"It is completely out of your hands." The priest spoke with absolutely no hesitation. "From the instant you put yourself above others, you surrendered yourself to their hands holding you up. There is nothing you can do except surrender your life and your fate to the ones you put below you and pray for their success in your place."

"A fail gate based on a RNG instead of a player input, huh?" Diabel mused with a rueful voice. "What a badly designed game."

The priest frowned in an expression of profound disappointment. "You are misunderstanding fundamentally." He shook his head. "This meaningless and pointless suffering is not the nature of a mere game, but the nature of a human life."

Diabel sighed heavily.

"Yes." The priest whispered. "That revelation…" the intensity that he stared into Diabel's eyes with was somehow profane. "What a good expression."

That intoxication like heavy wine made Diabel uncomfortable. "I'll, um, I'm going back now."

"I will be right here." The priest said. Instantly, he had regained that disturbing equanimity, and then he finished with a word of transcendent ominousness. "Waiting."


	12. 4:1 Ilya, Shirou, and Heroism

"Does it taste funny?" Ilya asked.

Shirou thought about it, and then replied confidently. "No."

"Hmm." Ilya murmured as she stabbed a piece of meat with her fork and transported it to her mouth. The meat flavor was about correct, and as expected of the so-called [Cow Floor], steak and hamburger types of food items were less than half the price that they had been on the First Floor. However, compared to the way that Shirou had prepared it in the real world, her hamburger steak wasn't nearly as good.

Part of it was the flavoring. Coriander or other real-world spices were completely unknown, and instead, they were replaced with a completely different set of plants that were simulated by the game, that produced entirely different flavors.

As if reading her mind, Shirou responded. "I mean, the flavors are completely unrecognizable, but they're not bad, just different."

"Oh?" Ilya replied. "Most players think that it would be better if they could eat familiar foods."

Shirou shook his head before asking an obvious question. "Isn't that pointless?"

Because it wasn't obvious to her, in response, Ilya cocked her head to the side.

Shirou elaborated. "Inside this virtual world, the [Taste Engine] can create any conceivable flavor. That doesn't mean it can just reproduce expensive flavors like saffron, but also that it can generate flavors that don't even exist in the real world. Considering that, I even prefer these impossible flavors, because it means there's definitely something in the game I would never be able to get in the real world."

Ilya supposed that was true. "But in that case, what's with that expression, Shirou?"

Shirou blinked. "What expression."

Ilya casually pointed at his face. "You've been eating so slowly, and the first time you put a serving in your mouth, you made an unpleasant expression, like when you bit into it the food was rotten." Saying something like that during a dinner, Ilya continued. "And it's not the first time, either. Whenever we get a meat dish, or even some vegetable dishes or stews, you always make that expression."

Shirou thought, and then had an [aha] expression. "Oh. That's because even if the taste engine is unexpectedly good, the texture engine is no good at all."

"Texture?" Ilya asked.

Shirou nodded, before spearing the meat with his fork and holding it up in front of them. "Well, let's just think about this meat. If it's a steak, then obviously you expect the umami flavor from the protein and fats, as well as the spiced flavor from the brine it was soaked in or the spice powder that was rubbed into the meat before cooking, right? However, it's not just flavor that contributes to the sensation of [This food being delicious]. It's also the texture of the muscle fibers, with the softness of the fat spread in layers through them, that make it food." Shirou stopped waving the fork around, and ate the piece of meat, before also picking up a slice of something that looked like a red pepper, except that the shape was all wrong and the color was strange. "Similarly with the vegetables. The flavor is fine, but you can't detect the toughness of the carbohydrate fibers or the starchiness of the flesh of the fruit." Shirou ate the vegetable as well with a sigh.

"So even if the flavors are fine, in terms of texture, everything is more like baked tofu or even poi, even if it possesses stiffness or toughness, it's all perfectly homogenous." Shirou shook his head. "So if it's the [Taste Engine] it's good, but from the perspective of [Food Simulation], that's only half of it, from the beginning it was incomplete."

Ilya stared for a moment, before she decided how to respond. "Shirou… you're kind of a cooking otaku, you know that?"

Shirou grunted as his expression turned sour. "I don't want to hear that from someone that can't even grill meat."

Ilya made a dismissive sound in response. "That's not a problem because I have Shirou to cook for me."

Shirou, in turn, dismissed that argument out of hand. "I won't recognize anyone who can't cook as a girl."

Ilya simply raised one eyebrow in an arched expression. "Oh? Shirou is surprisingly old-fashioned, huh? So it's a problem with my femininity if I can't cook?"

Shirou considered that, before realizing his error. "That's a good point. It's true that you could be a girl without knowing how to cook at all, but instead, that just means you're not really an adult." He nodded seriously, before he instantly changed stances from defensive to offensive. "For example, you would just be the same kind as Fuji-nee."

Ilya frowned mightily at that.

Shirou nodded as if he had reached a completely reasonable conclusion. "Actually, in terms of creating messes that others have to clean up, in addition to eating food you're incapable of even helping to prepare, you're exactly the same kind of layabout as Fuji-nee."

"Shirou!" Ilya pouted. "That's not fair at all! After all, she's a full-grown adult." She smirked. "And besides, I'll have Shirou to look after me forever, so it's not a problem in the first place."

"It's true she's more mature than you." After saying something that wasn't really a complement considering the context, he moved on to a stronger denial. "Even in terms of having me look after you, Fuji-nee says even more absurd things."

Ilya scowled. It was true that damn Tiger said things like 'it's okay because I'll just marry Shirou-kun' or such, but it was a problem because it was 90% joking, or more precisely, it was a problem because it was 10% serious. Ilya wouldn't allow such a threat to exist, even if it was a third-rate threat compared to the other two. So, with a humph, she ignored Shirou and turned her attention to her food rather than dignify his ridiculous accusations with a response.

When she put the last bit of hamburger steak in her mouth, Ilya leaned back in her chair. At the same time, the waitress came out of the back room and walked over, setting down the dessert course of the meal and clearing away the main course. Minor details like that kind of trigger-based response made the service in NPC restaurants impossibly fast and precise by IRL standards, but at the same time, it was annoying that the cost of the meal was artificially inflated by the restaurant variable called [Service Standards] that could just be set to max without actually changing anything in the game.

Still, when she saw how big the cheesecake item that had been placed in front of her was, she was willing to grudgingly admit that at least the goods were proportionate to the cost in that sense, at least.

It wasn't like she liked cheesecake all that much, but in the beta this shop had a certain reputation among players, so she decided to try and rack up some more love points. Because everyone else was still out celebrating in the streets, this restaurant was completely empty except for them. Even the NPC waitress had disappeared into the back, or maybe just vanished between pops.

Diabel had activated the Floor Transit Gate in the center of town, and had immediately started giving speeches and greeting the people that crossed from the [Starting City] to [Urbus]. She hadn't wanted to listen to those words or even look at his face, so instead she had dragged Shirou off to eat.

Ilya stabbed the corner of her cheesecake with the dessert fork, and scooped it into her mouth. On second thought, since forks didn't have a state like [Dirty] or [Used] and always remained pristine without picking up any coatings from previous courses, there was no reason to have more than one set of utensils, was there? Ilya chewed contemplatively. It was just useless imitation in that sense. Of course, at the same time, it wasn't like there was any limit to the number of forks that existed since they were all virtual anyway, so from the opposite perspective there was no reason not to use a fork for exactly one bite before replacing it with a new one. Chewing the cheesecake made Ilya think about what Shirou had said.

"It's not just the texture thing, is it, Shirou?" Ilya said.

Shirou paused.

"I can tell." Ilya announced. "Usually you hesitate just once at the beginning of the meal as if saying 'oh yeah' to yourself before you eat, but you've been eating slower than normal." Ilya studied his face. "It's not just the food, is it?"

In response, Shirou set down his fork, pushing his cheesecake away from himself. He swiped the air in front of him to summon the holographic menu, and began navigating.

When he changed the setting to [All Visible], the faint outline in front of him became perfectly clear to Ilya's vision, and she could see the characters and option sliders in the menu. He exited the options screen and moved to the main menu, before clicking over sideways through status to the equippable submenus.

Ilya paused, considering. He wanted to show her something, but it wasn't really possible to move the menu around so that it could change positions relative to the player, so she hopped out of her chair and wandered around, jumping onto Shirou's back.

She ignored his annoyed protests as she clambered over him, before looking at what he was showing her.

It was a [New Spell] that had appeared in his [Spell List].

But, rather than something he'd received as a teaching from some kind of trainer-type NPC, it was something that the [Cardinal System] itself had developed for him. No, it was something that the Cardinal System had developed after observing him.

Because, the [New Spell] was labeled [Unique]. It was something only Shirou could do.

[Name: Trigger On  
Description: Draw out power recorded in your soul and achieve great deeds. Equips [Skills] outside the normal limits.  
Prerequisites:  
Structural Grasp (800)  
Reinforcement (50)  
External Database (special requirement)]

"…You already have Structural Grasp mostly compete?" She asked.

"Yes." Shirou nodded in agreement. "Once I got it past 100, it would automatically activate every time I looked at a weapon."

"So you've been grinding it like crazy just like that, huh." Ilya concluded.

There were plenty of reasons to be concerned. The NerveGear was capable of reaching into someone's mind and creating the perfect illusion of the game. It could suppress sensory information from the outside and interfere with the mind's commands to the body.

However, she hadn't truly realized that it was capable of the same magnitude of interference when it came to magic. Certainly the NerveGear had to be capable of some kind of magecraft to cut her off from her Circuits, but if it was capable of examining Shirou's spiritual traits and inferring the function of a spell it saw only once, if it was capable of perceiving what made his Structural Grasp special, then it was absolute proof of Kayaba's competence.

Frankly speaking, after she had thought about it, Kayaba's claims had been unrealistic. The idea that most people had an undeveloped potential for Circuits was too fanciful. His claim about reclaiming the Third was absurd. Even undoing the transmutation that had changed her Circuits into a receptacle for Heroic Spirits was too much. No, that one especially was too much. The idea that he could remove the artificial Sorcery Trait of being the Lesser Grail from her was simply the perfect temptation for her, it couldn't be anything but a lie. But, after thinking about it a little bit, since it guaranteed she could live peacefully with Shirou, playing along was still the best course.

However.

If his [Cardinal System] was capable of diagnosing what Shirou had done and adding it to the [Simulation] as a recognized effect, after seeing it only once, then it meant that [Sword Art Online] was far more dynamic, flexible, and responsive than Ilya had thought. It wasn't a rigid place where people could only reproduce pre-determined magecraft. If they could develop their own skills according to their own aptitudes, that was different.

If the [System] could grow beyond its original limits by incorporating outside knowledge, that was different. It meant that the game wasn't necessarily using brute force to simulate individual spell effects from the top down, it meant that the [Thaumaturgy System] was more like a physics engine that computed results from approximations of physical law. Even if the approximations where aimed at verisimilitude, even if it was ultimately flawed and was still incomplete, it was still something you might call a [recreation of universal truth]. In other words, a Path to the Root.

But there was a more immediately disconcerting problem. "Shirou," Ilya asked, "can you navigate back to the main status screen?"

Wordlessly, Shirou reached up and flicked over to return to the circular menu around the stylized figure icon, that showed all the primary or basic data about the player character.

"And you leveled up twice?" She asked. It was important, so she asked again. "You got all the way to level 12 after the battle ended?"

Shirou nodded.

It was true that as someone who participated in a [Boss Battle] and landed the [Last Attack], the XP reward would be substantial. However, the XP reward just for winning wasn't that much. No, what that meant was that additional XP had been awarded when the spell had appeared in his [Spell List]. Although the notification popup had timed out, Shirou told her that the announcement that the spell had been added had included the XP reward, and that number had been big enough to make up the difference between what she would have expected from the [Boss Fight] and Shirou's value.

In short, [Spell Development] was something that the [Thaumaturgy Patch] was rewarding more highly than anything else in the game. XP was the most basic and pervasive way for the game programmer to reward players. Attaching an XP prize to an activity made it rewarding and desirable, so players would naturally consider it.

Shirou added something she hadn't considered. "If it's like this… the number of players that are trying to level up by fighting are limited. If there are players that can gather XP just by learning [Magecraft], than there won't just be [Combat]-type players, but there will also be [Researchers]."

If Players cheerfully pursued that reward, if the enthusiastically developed their magecraft, then by the time the game ended, the Enforcers would not see them as victims, but instead as collaborators.

Not only did this single new spell listing prove Kayaba's excellence at diagnosing the magical traits in others, it was also proof that he was going to drag everyone down with him when he received a Sealing Designation.

Ilya closed her eyes and shook her head. "What are you going to do about that, Shirou?"

Shirou considered. "After the game… I don't know. I'm just a magic-user, not a magus, so it's not like I'm offended about others learning about magic. If anything… I'm worried about a fight with Mage Association." Shirou sighed heavily, before expressing a sincere wish. "I just don't want anyone to get killed."

Ilya agreed. Compared to Shirou, her upbringing was much more appropriate for a proper magus, but at the same time, she wasn't raised as an heir that received an education and had the moral instruction to be a proper magus. Instead, she was a homunculus that had been taught what was necessary to participate in the Grail War. It wasn't like she had any opinions about the place magecraft had in the world, and it's not like she was concerned about the other players for their own sake, so as long as she wasn't pushed into anything, she didn't really care.

"So what are you going to do now, Shirou?" When she opened them again, she forcibly switched her line of thinking. Rather than worrying about something that might happen after her life span was used up, it was more pleasant to think about what she was going to do with Shirou tomorrow.

As part of that, she shifted, dropping down into the seat next to Shirou rather than standing on it to look over his shoulder, and returned her attention to the forgotten cheesecake, attacking it with renewed vigor.

Shirou quietly closed his menu and restored [Visible to Player Only] mode before he finally answered her question. "If Diabel is correct about inspiring hope, many players who stayed in the [Starting City] are going to start actively leveling up."

Ilya set down her fork. The quiet tone Shirou had spoke in was a voice that recognized he was starting an argument he didn't want to have. However, the absolute lack of hesitation in his words meant that if they did argue he wouldn't compromise.

"You're going back out." Ilya said. It wasn't really a question. "Rather than staying with me, you're going to go back to running around like an idiot trying to save everybody else." The longer she spoke, the more accusing her words became.

"Yes." Shirou replied in a flat tone.

Ilya fiddled with her fork. "I don't want that." She announced. The words were sudden, but she had been clearly building up to them until they burst out, rather than speaking them as a surprise. "I don't want you to leave me alone so you can help strangers." Ilya pouted. "I don't want you to pick strangers over me."

"It can't be helped." Shirou said.

That was definitely the wrong thing to say. "It can't?" Ilya said, sharply. "Don't make it sound like this is something you have to do. This is a choice. You're picking somebody you don't know over me." Ilya lowered her head. "You're just like Kiritsugu." Her voice was low and soft, and full of frustrated anger. "You're going to make the same stupid mistakes and cause the same stupid suffering."

Even if the words were venomous, even if they were a curse, to Shirou, that was the best praise: to be called [Just Like Kiritsugu]. So, rather than object, Shirou smiled with a soft and happy expression. "Ilya," he gently said, "I want to be like Kiritsugu."

Ilya stared. Shirou met her eyes without blinking as her stare bore into him. "Shirou… stop doing this. Just play with me and ignore everyone else, okay? Otherwise you'll get into trouble."

"You're being unreasonable, Ilya." Shirou scolded. "It's not like we'll be separated or that we've been separated. We still stay in the same inns and have dinner together. Compared to when I'm in school, is the time we spend together any different?"

Ilya shook her head, frustrated. It wasn't just about what was happening right now, it was about what would happen afterwards, what would happen in the future. "You're just going to be deceiving yourself and crying if you do that, Shirou."

Shirou sighed. "Even so, this is what I want to do."

Ilya frowned, staring at the table. "A magic-user, not a magus… that's also something Kiritsugu called himself. You're imitating him like that, too, huh? This isn't just a problem with you playing the Hero game right now. If you get involved, then that's picking sides. If you go against the common sense of society you'll be crushed. Don't throw away everything and betray the people around you just for an impossible dream."

Shirou grunted. "I'm not betraying anyone."

Ilya studied his face, and then she realized something. "Kiritsugu married into the Einzbern." She announced. "It's not just that he was hired by them to win the Grail War, he was made a son of the family by marriage. That's how he came to be the father of Ilyasivel von Einzbern."

Shirou paused. This was all something he'd learned somewhat, but it wasn't anything that had been put in front of him by Ilya all at once.

Ilya continued. "So how did he end up living in Fuyuki, separate from his family, separate from me, with you as his son?" Ilya looked away. "I know he tried to break into our castle and get me. I'm not stupid." Then she looked up to meet Shirou's eyes. "But why did he have to? It's not that he failed. It's because he betrayed us. Something as big as the Grail… maybe Angra Mainyu got in the way, but he wanted to use it to achieve a big dream." Ilya lowered her head. "From the beginning… daddy intended to betray me before I was even born."

Shirou was silent for a long time. Sullenly, as something to do rather than something she wanted to do, Ilya ate her cheesecake mechanically.

Finally Shirou spoke. "I want to pick up what Kiritsugu put down." Shirou finally said. "A hero that can save everyone… of course that's impossible. And since he left you behind, of course I'll take care of you in his place." Shirou paused, before considering. "No, it's not just that I'll do it for his sake, but I'll take care of you because I want to. I want to look after you, so it's not like I'm considering you as an obligation from someone else."

Ilya set the fork down. Hearing Shirou say those words made her happy. She wanted to laugh and smile, and throw herself over the table, take a running leap off the table and tackle him in a big hug as she laughed. But she couldn't. There was a word that hung over them, a contradiction that lurked like a sword pointed at her, that would cut down everything that would have made those words so sweet. He would say [but] and whatever followed would destroy her happiness. She could tell.

"But I will not stop." Shirou announced, full of quiet conviction. "I will persist as a hero. It's not wrong to save people."

Ilya stared at him without moving.

"But, Ilya." Shirou continued. "I'm not betraying you to do this. Even if I want to be like Kiritsugu, I am not Kiritsugu." He sighed. "If I save people now, then maybe I'll make myself into an enemy of the Mage Association." Shirou leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. "But what does that have to do with you?" Like that, Shirou rejected not her objections, but the fundamental premise of her objections. "If you're worried about me getting crushed by a power greater than me, then you're thinking too much about Mage Association treating me as an exception. I'm a Magic User, not a Magus, remember? There's no reason to assume they wouldn't treat me as a part of Kayaba's plan no matter what I do. And since it has nothing to do with you in the first place, it's not betraying you no matter what happens."

"I don't want you to worry about other people." Ilya admitted. Since everything regarding others had already been rejected, she just opened her heart to admit her own selfish desire. "I want Shirou to pay attention only to me."

Once, months ago, she had sat on his lap and looked in his eyes and asked much the same question. At that time, even though he was tied to a chair and had no way to object, he had still denied her. With the same expression on his face as that time, once again, he denied her selfish wish. "Ilya… you know I can't do that." Shirou replied. "I care about you, but I won't care about only you." Just like that time, he rejected her demands without rejecting her personally. Since he was rubbing his wrist unconsciously without looking at what his hands were doing, she could tell that he was thinking about that same time just like she was.

Ilya pouted, frowning mightily. After exposing her heart, she closed it again, although since he hadn't hurt her weak point even when it was exposed, she was pleased by that much, at least, even if he hadn't given her everything she wanted. Rather than saying anything, she picked her fork back up.

Ilya finished her cheesecake, since there wasn't much left, and without asking permission, dragged Shirou's across the table so it was in front of her.

"Oy." He muttered, without bothering to move to stop her or object any more than that. Frankly speaking, Ilya was shamelessly exploiting his guilt. Ilya didn't feel bad about that at all, since he was the one that needed to apologize to her anyway.

"What about Rin?" Ilya asked. "After all, she's accepted you as her apprentice. Shouldn't you be more conservative and think about how your actions reflect on your teacher? She might get dragged in, too, after all."

Shirou shrugged. Compared to the sad look when he considered Ilya's relation with him, the expression when he considered Rin was more like troubled, or even worried. "I'll deal with that when it happens." He decided. While talking, it was more like he was trying to convince himself than trying to convince Ilya. "This is what I've decided, so I'll explain and listen to her objections, but after listening, I definitely won't change my mind."

That pleased Ilya immensely, so she smiled, although Shirou did not look relieved at that, but instead, he looked even more uncomfortable. That annoyed Ilya, but not enough to dampen her glee at beating Rin this time. "I see, I see. Well, I won't say that I'll say anything, but you can depend on my silent support from behind at that time, okay Shirou?"

Shirou grunted. "So what are you going to do, Ilya?"

Ilya paused with a fork of cheesecake halfway to her mouth, before setting it down contemplatively.

Although she had confronted Shirou about it so seriously, in truth, she hadn't thought about anything but monopolizing his time. If he was willing to treat her as first place that was an acceptable compromise, but honestly, she didn't really have any specific plans. She smiled at him again. "Maybe we can team up as heroes again?"

"Denied." Shirou didn't even hesitate or consider before he spoke. "You always make the situation worse, so compared to that, I think you should do something else."

Ilya paused, considering. "Maybe… Maybe I'll join the clearing group and fight the bosses. Don't expect me to allow you to skip out on Floor Bosses, so you'll have to join my Guild as my minion."

Shirou nodded with a hesitant look as he considered the implications. "I thought you didn't like Diabel. Shouldn't you avoid him?"

Ilya snorted in an unladylike manner. "His personality is annoying, but I wouldn't be able to stand his existence if there was no one around to keep him humble, so I'll make the sacrifice and remind him not to get too full of himself."

Shirou considered that for longer than Ilya thought he should have before responding. "I suppose it's impossible to say don't become enemies with him, but can you at least keep it at a reasonable level?"

"Hey!" Ilya objected. "I don't see why you you're saying things like that, Shirou! That makes it sound like it's my fault I don't like him when it's a problem with his personality in the first place!" With that, she went back to eating cheesecake. It was twice as consoling as regular sweets because it was something she stole from Shirou.

Shirou sighed. "I don't know if I've said it before, but Fuji-nee is a really bad role model." He shook his head. "I would much prefer you look up to a good girl like Sakura, rather than become the successor of some wild Tiger."

Compared to his earlier statements, that was even more outrageous. "I'm nothing like that woman." Ilya shot back. "Compared to her I'm a much better big sis, so I won't allow you to compare us any more at all! Or I'll get angry."

Shirou looked at her like he didn't even understand what she was saying, or rather, like he didn't understand how she could possibly have said those words sincerely, before sighing in a heavy and put upon manner. The implications of his body language were more articulate than anything he could have said, so it was grounds for further complaint.

But, before she could say anything, Shirou spoke up.

"Ilya, it's getting late, so shouldn't we start to consider getting an inn?" Rather than continue the argument, he capitulated totally and changed the subject.

Something in the way he gave up, like it was too much hassle rather than because he lost, made Ilya suspicious. Somehow it was even more suspicious than when he engaged in his usual bull-headed stubbornness. "Very well." She agreed. "Then I'll escort you to a suitable secret Inn that no one else even knows about, so it will be just for the two of us."

"Hai hai… Tiger-chan."

"Hey!"


	13. 4:2 Kirito and Argo Rock Out

Frankly speaking, as someone who wasn't ashamed to call himself an [Introvert], Kirito was someone who had a meter inside him, and when it filled up, he needed to escape from being surrounded by other people or he'd start to take personality damage and become surly.

Well, judging by what had happened to his party, Ilya had already failed a [Save vs. Diabel] and taken a critical hit, so she had dragged her brother off to regain personality HP. It was a class feature of [Girls] that they could recover personality damage from sweet things, inside limits.

Kirito hoped that Sugu was doing well.

He shook himself. He turned his attention back to the town around him. The simulated day had ended, so it was time to find a place to sleep. Although the [Thaumaturgy Patch] had disabled the [Tracking] portion of the [Search Skill], that wasn't necessary for what he was doing now.

Because the World of Aincrad was so huge, in terms of surface area, it was generated procedurally. That meant that starting parameters were designated by the programmers, and then they let the computer turn the crank to generate geography and topology with pseudorandom methods. Most quests were inserted into that pre-generated framework, but basic NPCs and story quests could be generated that way, although in the Beta the [Cardinal System] had an annoying addiction to the stereotypes of RPGs, probably because the data set it worked from was outlines from old games.

Well, the result was that even if the [Launch Version] was created from the same parameters in the same defined space as the [Beta Version], this version of Urbus still had different buildings in a different layout.

On one hand, it was annoying because it meant that this was a case where his hard-won knowledge was obsolete, but on the other hand, it also meant that he wasn't racing against other players, but instead competing on the skill check, and Kirito was confident in his [Find Inns] skill. By the way, this was a skill equipped by the player, not the character, so even if the [Searching Skill] had been nerfed, it was only a minus one penalty on the skill check.

Walking through the dark streets, Kirito found what he was looking for.

Just like all the buildings in Urbus, this one was three stories tall. The second and third floor looked like bland residential windows, but just like the rest of the buildings on this side street, the first floor was a restaurant.

But, rather than a door, the entire first floor was open to the air, and what was hanging from the front was a wide segmented curtain that hung down from the ceiling to clear a one-meter gap from the floor. On the curtain, [Urbus Noodle Paradise] was written with extraordinarily sloppy handwriting. It was a piece of trivia only a true fan like he had been could have found out, but that super-awful handwriting was none other than Kayaba Akihiko's.

Kirito brushed through the curtain and stepped inside. The furniture was all beat-up benches and tables without anything on them, but they were all polished to a shine. The whole width of the building was dining area, and against the back wall was a chest-level counter lined with bar stools, with the kitchen area on the far side. Behind the counter was a lumpy ossan type of guy with thick ears and heavy jowls and a broad apron. His idle animation was preparing the [Ramen], all the way from shaping and baking the noodles on the right end, to cooking the broth in the middle, to final assembly on the left.

That guy absolutely wouldn't respond no matter what you said. There was no way he would take your order, or even respond to anything said to him. Kirito strongly suspected they hadn't even hired a voice actor, so it was impossible to get him to respond in several ways.

The secret of [Paradise] was behind him. Tucked in the corner near the entry curtain on the left side, there was a booth-like desk with an extremely bored looking teenager kind of guy lounging half asleep.

For someone who frequented Ramen shops in downtown Tokyo, once you realized what was going on, it was completely obvious what you had to do. The guy behind the counter was just the cook who accepted your ticket, and the bored ticket guy was a pre-industrial version of the vending machine where you purchased the meal ticket.

So, Kirito approached the desk. "One Shrimp Special." He ordered.

With the slowest possible blink, the NPC looked up, and without saying anything, shrugged. A trad window appeared between the two of them. On the [Other Party] tab was listed the [Shrimp Ramen Meal Ticket], and the requirement to complete the trade was to give over enough money. Kirito traded the Col, and took the ticket over and sat down on one of the bar stools. He slid the ticket out on the counter, and once it crossed an invisible line, the ossan cook guy broke out of his idle animation, shuffled over to take the ticket from in front of Kirito, shuffled to the left corner, grabbed a bowl at random, and shuffled back to set it down in front of the customer without saying anything or looking up, before shuffling back to endlessly preparing the food.

Holding his chopsticks in front of him, he prepared to eat. But before he said anything, he heard the clicking sound of hard-soled shoes on the hewn wood floors. He looked over his shoulder.

A short figure in a concealing brown cloak had stepped in front of the bored desk guy, and also purchased a ticket. Turning, the figure walked over to sit next to him.

"Kiribou."

"Argo." Kirito returned, greeting her. He set his chopsticks down for the moment, waiting until she received her meal, and then chorused "Ikadakimasu" with her. With the obligation of saying those words before their meal out of the way, they both dug in like hungry teenagers.

"That was even better than I remembered." Kirito said, when he pushed his bowl away.

Argo hummed, finishing her own bowl. "The chef in this place is continuously grinding his cooking skill, so he's one of the few NPCs that levels up over time."

"Ah." Kirito nodded. It was an interesting piece of trivia. He shifted in his seat slightly, waiting for her to speak.

Finally, with an shameless but tiny burp, she also pushed the bowl away. "Kiribou… that little girl today, what was her name?"

"100 col." Kirito instantly replied with a completely straight face.

Without even blinking, Argo called up the trade menu and deposited 100 col in it.

As a result, Kirito was the one that blinked. But, before accepting the trade, he spoke. "She was just referred to as [Ilya], but according to her cursor, her full name was [Von Ilya]."

"I see." Argo said, nodding. "You know, I never turn down a friend request, right?" She nodded again. "Because for me, it's not a list of friends, but simply contacts, so the more people I have listed the better."

Kirito had just about known that, so he nodded.

"Instead of this," Argo reached up and cancelled the trade, "Kiribou, you know that there's an item called the [Name Tag] you can get from stupid quests on the First Floor, right?"

Kirito withheld the word he wanted to say, which was [Cheapskate], and instead responded with, "Yes… although I recall you had a lot of fun as the damsel in distress."

"T-that's not important right now!" Argo said, slapping the counter. "What I mean is, that [Von Ilya] was already on my friend list, so when she changed her name, I know her original name."

Kirito considered that. Not just the ominous way she had said it, but he also considered what he knew about Ilya, specifically, her personality. "It's something really bad, isn't it."

Argo nodded. "[Berserkah]."

Kirito pondered. "Well… compared to [Akuma] or [Diabel] or whichever you call him, she's probably about the same, right?"

Argo had a complex expression on her face as she leaned back, and nodded her head back and forth. "Yes and no. It's true that they were both the type that were playing against other players, but… how can I put it, if [Akuma] was someone that wanted to revel in his superiority over others, than [Berserkah] just wanted to hurt people." Argo sat forward to hunch back over the counter, looking at Kirito out of the corner of her eye. "Compared to [Players that want to win] or [Trolls who want to troll], then she was [Someone exploring cruelty]." Argo sighed. "Yeah, Berserkah was infamous for bug exploits, but the way she tried to use them was the same: to make people experience fear and distress despite the lack of [Pain]."

"Argo… you read the [System Announcement], right?" Kirito asked slowly. He had only glanced over it himself when the little white bar had appeared over his [HP gauge], but he had decided to put off really thinking about it until he had rented the room upstairs.

Argo nodded unhappily. "Yeah."

About two hours after the fight with Illfang, a [System Announcement] had been made by [Cardinal] to all players, informing them of changes to the game. The most obvious had been the implementation of the [Stamina System] that resulted in the additional gauge over HP. During fighting and running, it slowly decremented, decreasing in proportion to the amount of activity you engaged in. Well, that was Kirito's theory at least, based on only running around town a little and spamming a [Sword Skill] as a hypothesis.

There had been other changes listed, mostly things about balancing item drops. Those sorts of announcements had been extremely common during the [Beta], as the GMs had adjusted the difficulty of the game according to what they observed. Kirito had mixed feelings about the [Cardinal System] doing the same during a [Death Match]. On one hand, it was nice to know there was an upper limit that would prevent the game from being [Impossibly Deadly]. On the other hand, it was also removed the chance the game would become [Super Easy].

But most important to the discussion at hand, had been the very last line, included almost like an afterthought, even though it fundamentally changed the nature of the [Game].

[Physical Pain is now enabled.]

Kirito hadn't been willing to test that one yet. But, looking at Argo's face, he saw that she was definitely thinking about what it meant to the game that [Berserkah] was around as an unrecognized person during that time. Kirito remembered that Argo had once mentioned she'd reported [Berserkah] to the police as someone to worry about. At the time he'd thought she was sourly joking, but his confidence had gone down 50% during this conversation.

"I don't think her brother would let her." Kirito finally replied, trying to look for the silver lining.

Argo paused, before finally speaking in a disbelieving voice. "Her brother?"

Kirito nodded. "Yeah, Shirou." He decided to luxuriate in her ignorance, choosing to enjoy the superiority that was worth more than the Col he could have haggled for. "You know, the [Sixth Ranger], that guy."

"The guy who took down Illfang with some kind of secret super-special move, huh?" Argo mused. "I wonder how he unlocked an [Extra Skill] so early in the game, although based on how constantly he's been active, I'm not really surprised he of all people found one."

"It was incredible." Kirito agreed. "Because it wasn't an [Extra Skill]. It wasn't something from the game, even if it exploited game mechanics. That was something based on the player's Real Life abilities."

Argo frowned. "That's not funny, Kiribou."

Kirito shrugged. "Maybe… if they came from a hard place in life, it might make sense, right?"

Argo raised an eyebrow. "So what, she's some kind of ruthless Yakuza princess, and he's a stone-cold gang fighter?"

Kirito shifted in his stool. "If so… does it matter? Anything outside Aincrad is irrelevant right now, so the most important thing is living through our [Today] without losing. If they're strong players, we should welcome them to the top ranks, instead of driving them off."

Argo studied his face for a moment, and Kirito looked away, uncomfortable. "You're pretty cool, aren't you, Kiribou."

"Whatever." He mumbled.

Argo laughed her sharp laugh with the breathy overtone, the sort of laughter that was definitely appropriate for a boss monster named [Queen of the Rats].

"Fine." Argo agreed. "Well, you told me some great data, so in exchange, I'll tell you any one piece of info for free."

Kirito considered that, glancing at Argo. He was going to ask sincerely for an interesting bit of trivia, but at the same time, the way she tacked on [for free] made it sound like she was rewarding him instead of repaying him. So, he decided to tease her a little bit.

Kirito set his expression in absolute seriousness, and leaned forward slightly, meeting Argo's eyes with his own steady gaze. "I want to know the secret of those whiskers."

Argo's eyes widened, before she looked away, sputtering slightly. "W-what!?" She looked back, frowning, a dangerous gleam in her eye. "Wouldn't you rather know something else? Anything else? My [Three sizes] or something like that, isn't that what's on a young boy's mind, Kiribou?" Somehow, she had reversed her defense and changed to accusing him.

"I'm not interested in that." Kirito flatly replied.

"I wouldn't have told you anyway but that still hurts." Argo muttered. "Well, come on then, Kiribou. I'll show you the [Secret of the Whiskers], so you should feel grateful." With that, she slapped her hands on the table and stood up.

Kirito watched her walk for the exit, before she turned back to look at him expectantly.

"But my secret Inn room…" he said, pointing at the staircase tucked in the back corner.

Argo rolled her eyes, before darting forward to grab his arm. "It will still be there. Come on, this is a limited time offer that I absolutely won't allow to expire."

Like that, she overrode his objections and pulled him outside. After a moment, he gave up on trying to resist, and just walked beside her. Watching the people celebrating, it was like a festival in the city, as people marveled at the 2nd Floor. The density was so high, that Kirito thought that thousands of players must have migrated from the [Starting City] to gawk. But those two didn't speak, although it was a companionable silence as they reached the west gate.

Kirito tried to resist when it was apparent they would be leaving the city. But he was once again overruled, although he insisted on closing his eyes and opening his [Circuit], although Argo didn't do the same. He couldn't feel any prana radiating from her at all.

The [Reinforcement] Shirou had done on his sword still hadn't worn off.

Argo led him to the edge of a cliff on the mountain nearest to [Urbus], and then without any hesitation, immediately started climbing. For someone who specialized in exploring the [World], looking for new and unexplored regions or just a perspective that would give a hint to them, Kirito knew for a fact that Argo leveled [Climb] as one of her most important support skills.

It was only her archly disappointed look that kept him from protesting how high they were. At his level this much falling damage probably wouldn't be lethal, but since it was his [Real Life], anything that wasn't [Certainly Not Lethal] was something to be concerned about. However, getting attacked by [Wasp Monsters] while clinging to the side of a cliff was three times scarier than fighting them on flat ground. Argo didn't even Reinforce her throwing picks, and Kirito silently promised himself to acquire the [Throwing] skill for these kinds of situations. The way he thanked her for finishing them all before they took damage could only be described as [Shameless].

After climbing the mountain, she walked diagonally towards the northwest until she found a stream, which she immediately started following. They were ambushed by a sickly-looking [Taurus] type monster, which was appropriate for the Beta-nicknamed [Cow Floor], but it went down quickly to his Anneal Blade. Argo huffed when he casually finished it off, with an expectant look. If someone was going to describe how she thanked him, that person would say she didn't.

Despite his expectations, the stream they were following didn't cascade off the north side of the cliff they had just climbed, but instead, dog-legged around to swirl into a cave.

Argo moved towards it without any hesitation, and he paused when she simply sat down in the stream, and pushed herself along it like she was going down a waterslide in an amusement park.

After regretting at least three decisions, Kirito realized that he shouldn't abandon her, so he simply sat down and also pushed off. The rapid speed of the water and the incredibly sharp turns made it terrifying as he rushed through the dark in the water, whipping back and forth without only the pounding sound of the water to hear.

When he landed with a huge splash in the pool, Kirito was completely disoriented, but absolutely certain that if he survived the [Death Game], and was released, and if even then the Fulldive technology wasn't abandoned, and if in that possible future someone released a waterslide game, Kirito would definitely buy it.

Sputtering has he walked toward the edge of the pool, he cast an eye at Argo, who was standing pouting with her hands on her hips waiting for him. Because she had also experienced the waterslide, her appearance had changed parameters from [Argo the Rat] to [Argo the Drowned Rat]. He said as much, but fortunately they were attacked by some big fat pale cave worms, so after those were squished, he simply powered through when she tried to continue her objections.

Past the edge of the pool, there was light coming from a cave mouth.

He hurried through, this time leaving Argo behind, and then paused as he stepped across the threshold of the cave and was outside again.

It was a volcanic caldera. There were sharp cliffs tens of meters of high around them in every direction, and the roof of the floor stood like a lid. However, in the gap between the edge of the cliffs and the roof of the floor, that cylindrical band was full of alien stars. There weren't any constellations, or rather, if there were any they were generated randomly without matching the real sky.

In the base of the caldera, there was a small spring, an old and twisted tree that still looked full of life, and a hut that would have been a hovel if it wasn't so well maintained.

"Is it here?" Kirito asked, but rather than asking, Argo simply marched to the hut, and pushed open the door and barged inside. By that point, both of their appearances had reverted to their normal (dry) appearance. Kirito followed her.

The inside of the hut was dominated by the middle-aged guy built like an Hollywood action movie star from the 1980s. His height would have been over two meters if he had been standing instead of sitting cross-legged on the floor, and his biceps were bigger around then Kirito's thighs, even when his arms were relaxed and folded in his lap.

Over a beard like a well-groomed hedge bush and over a head polished like a dome, his eyes were closed in meditation. However, when he opened them, the [!] marker of a quest-giver appeared over that perfectly bald head.

"This guy grants the [Martial Arts Extra Skill]. I can tell you up until that point, but accepting the quest or not is Kiribou's decision."

"Martial arts, huh." Kirito mused, crossing his arms. Something like that would probably be an attack skill that could be used without anything equipped, so it would be the perfect back-up weapon when you had been disarmed or had to fight close. Well, most games either had a [Glove Type Equipment] to add to your attack power, or the [Martial Arts] users couldn't keep up with equipment users in terms of their basic damage numbers. However, there was still one more question. "What does this have to do with the whiskers?"

Argo laughed in her unique way again before speaking. "I've given you everything you need to find out for yourself, so you should appreciate that big sister can only tutor you, but can't give the answer directly."

Kirito frowned. Somehow it had become a different situation compared to before. Was this the revenge of the [Drowned Rat], or an earlier grudge? Either way, there was only one thing to do.

Kirito stepped forward into the hut.

The eyes of the super-muscular NPC followed him, and when Kirito stood before him, finally the NPC spoke. "Thou wishes to be a disciple?"

Kirito weighed his curiosity before answering. Like always, it was quite heavy. "Yes."

"Even though there be a long and steep road of training?"

"I'm expecting no less." Saying something blandly appropriate, Kirito watched as the cursor changed from someone who offered a quest, to an NPC who had their quest accepted. Then, he brushed off the legs of his dogi, and stood up. His height was definitely above two meters. He walked with total silence out of the hut, and crossed a garden-like area.

There was a huge round boulder that came up to his shoulder level. He slapped it casually with his right hand, before turning to look at Kirito.

"Thine training is just one. Splitting this rock using only thy palms. Once thou have succeed, I shall teach thee all my knowledge."

To that, there was one perfect thing for Kirito to say. "What." His flat-voiced demand was ignored, however, as the old man reached inside the dogi folded across his chest.

Kirito touched the rock. Definitely, it was impossible. The durability was barely short of [Immortal Object]. Even if he used the Anneal Blade, that would give out before the rock would. So, with a dark glance at Argo, he turned to cancel the quest.

However, the muscle guy was holding an inkpot and a writing brush in each of his hands, and was already launching into the dialogue.

"Until this rock is split, leaving this mountain is forbidden. Thou must bear this mark for that reason." Before any objection could be articulated other than a shaky step back, the hands launched into a cartoonish blur, and the guy even shouted like this, "Shashashasha-shaaa!" as he whipped the brush back and forth across Kirito's face too many times. Kirito blinked, feeling a sensation like shock or sensory overload, before the guy returned to his somber and contemplative tone to deliver his last sentence. "That [Mark] must be borne until thou hath completed this task. My disciple, I believe in thee." On that note, the NPC turned and ambled back to the hut, presumably to wait while Kirito stupidly pounded on the rock for hours.

"Well isn't that nice." Kirito muttered, before leveling an accusing stare at Argo. "So, giving up on this quest and just shamelessly keeping the mark through the entire [Beta Test], that's the secret origin story of the whiskers of [Argo the Rat], huh?" Definitely, the mystery was solved.

"Excellent!" Argo said, clapping her hands and praising him in a mocking manner. "That is some excellent deductive reasoning, as expected of the cute boy detective, Kiribou!" Still clapping her hands in an excessive manner, she continued to speak. "As a reward for such great reasoning ability, I'll tell you one more thing." Then, she dropped her hands to her sides and said with a haunted voice, "This rock is a demon."

Kirito considered the options available to him. "…These whiskers, do mine look like yours?"

Argo cocked her head to the side, and frowned with a palm on her chin, studying his face intently, before finally speaking. "We're not a matched set, Kiribou, but I can express it in one word…"

After leaving his hanging, she finished by saying, "Kiriemon."

A reference to the old and classic gag manga about a time-traveling robot cat who possessed the Tools of the Future, and magnificient whiskers but no ears. That was Doraemon.

In a theatrical fashion, Kirito collapsed to the ground. There was nothing he could do.

Wait. Kirito sat up abruptly, frowning. There was something he could do. He stood.

Argo stopped laughing, and studied him quizzically as he closed his eyes and focused on his breathing, clenching his hands into fists in front of him.

Anything could be improved with the basic [Reinforcement] spell. If this was a way to unlock the [Martial Arts Skill], then it meant that it was fighting with bare hands. From a practical gameplay perspective, that meant that his hands had to have the same parameters defined for them that weapons had, so that the system could calculate damage and knockback for punches and kicks.

Just like his sword, his hands should have properties like [Sharpness] and [Durability]. Well, he didn't have the [Reinforce Sharpness] spell, and without that to rely on, he wasn't confident he could improve something as counterintuitive as [Sharpness] on his fists anyway. Wasn't it called [Hardness] for bludgeoning type weapons? Without being sure he couldn't visualize the effect.

However, he could at least reinforce the durability enough to put his fists into the same material category as the rock. Even if he couldn't make his fingers into five tiny swords on each hand, if he could at least make them as tough as iron, they would still win against a rock.

He hadn't closed his circuit after fighting those cave worms, so he synchronized his mind and circulated the prana through him. When it circulated through his hands, he imagined it brushing all the way out from his circuits to against his skin, like electricity dissipating into a resistor, like the prana was heat soaking all the way into his hands.

The visible portions of his wrists and fingers that he could see through his fingerless gloves, had changed color, darkening unnaturally as he improved them.

With an akward imitation of a boxing stance, Kirito raised his hand into the guard, and then whipped around, swinging his weight behind his right arm as it shot forward in a straight punch from the shoulder and smashed into his target. Rather than a meaty thump, the impact came with the sharp drum sound of two rocks being smacked together.

He held the pose for a minute before pulling his hand slowly, puffing his breath out. Looking down at his fingers, he finally gave in and screamed, "ouch."

Argo dashed forward. "Are you alright!?" She asked, worried, hovering over him.

It hurt. It wasn't the sharp pain radiating out from the joint like he'd jammed or broken a knuckle, but rather, an indistinct sensation that pierced the area of his knuckles, the base of his fingers, and the back of his hand. Compared to an injury, this felt more like he'd slept on it and now it was punishing him with the pins-and-needles feeling. "Physical Pain is definitely enabled." He grunted.

Argo bit her lip. That was something that she hadn't considered when she had set Kirito up. It wasn't funny if he had to choose between giving up and hurting himself. Even as the pain wore off, he could see that she was thinking about that kind of thing, so he forced himself to be manlier and stood up straight, and ignored the pain. It wasn't cool to make a girl worry about you, after all.

"You don't have to, you know." Argo quietly said.

Kirito pursued his lips. "I have another idea." He announced, before stepping forward.

It was something he'd acquired out of his gamer's desire for 100% completion, rather than any intention to actually use it, but it was still in his [Spell List]. He closed his eyes and opened his hands, putting his open palms flat on the so-called [Demon Rock].

He triggered the skill in his mind by announcing it to himself. "Structural Grasp."

It was like a wireframe model being built out from his palms, spreading from his finger tips across the surface of the rock and binding around it. He could see its shape perfectly in his mind, even the parts that were buried underground. He reached deeper into the spell, trying to tease out what its statistics and parameters were.

If he was going to estimate, considering the amount of damage he did with his punch, it would take two days of continuously punching the rock to wear its durability down to zero.

However, that wasn't what he was going to do at all. If the durability was just one step short of [Immortal Object], then it was only one step away from being in a completely different category. The way [Immortal Objects] were considered compared to [Regular Items] were completely different. Something half and half would be a contradiction of the rules of the [Cardinal System].

Kirito reinforced the durability of the rock. He poured his prana into it, filling it up. If before it had been like dissipating heat in resistors, what he did now was building potential in this huge capacitor. However, because its limit was so low, because it was already so close, the potential of the capacitor was not great. Well, his reserves weren't great either. If his [Prana Gage] was a fuel cell, then he was coming close to depleting it and needing to scoop up ions to burn.

He reached the limit of what the rock could accept with prana to spare. With a fierce cry, he tensed his arms and pushed against the rock, and a surge of prana went through into the capacitor, blasting it, fusing it with damage.

With a huge crack, the rock split, breaking into several pieces as he took it past its limit and forced the corresponding penalty onto it.

He noted his [Stamina gauge] had gone down a little, and that it was refilling faster than baseline as he breathed quickly and deeply.

With an expression between amazement, awe, and jealousy, Argo looked back and forth from him to the rock, before finally speaking. "What was that!?"

"500 col." Kirito said, savoring her expression.

She pouted, but opened the trade window. She only offered 250.

Kirito decide to be generous. "I [Reinforced] the [Durability] of your [Demon Rock] past the limit of what it could handle."

Argo frowned. "Kirito, wouldn't that just be making it even harder for you?"

Kirito smiled in a superior way, looking at the shattered rock parts scattered before him. "Trying to go past the limit is like pumping too much water into a tank. It bursts from the inside." He glanced away from the rock, and looked back to Argo. "the [Sixth Ranger], that is, Shirou told me that… just earlier today, actually." Kirito said. He carefully flexed his fingers. There was an unnatural stiffness to them, because of the magic he'd used on himself. "I thought it would be worth seeing if it was true." He managed to get his hands closed except for the pointer finger like he wanted, so he reached out and pushed the [Accept] button on the trade window.

He looked around, especially at the dark sky, before deciding to be generous again. "It's getting pretty late, so if you don't mind sharing a hut with [Master Bearded Baldy] and I, we can do the same thing for you tomorrow."

Argo studied his face for a moment, before looking away. "I can't." she said quietly.

Kirito somehow didn't think she meant something like she couldn't sleep in the same room as him, not when she repeatedly pulled stunts like barging into his room and hijacking his tub. In the first place, the moment he'd stepped into the hut, he'd noticed that it was treated as [Inside a Building] by the system, so she would have the full protection of the [Ethics Code] if she was worried about that. So if it wasn't that, then Kirito made a guess. "I'll give you the [Reinforce Durability] spell for 100 col." He offered.

Argo shook her head. "It's not that either."

Kirito rubbed his jaw. "You haven't done the [Circuit Activation Quest], have you?" He asked. "Well, I can understand that it's not necessary to play as an [Information Dealer], but it's really obvious that it's the part of the game Kayaba cares about, so I'm willing to bet that this is one of those swords-and-sorcery games where swords get completely outpaced by sorcery after level ten and the gap only gets bigger over time." He hadn't meant to scold her, but it was his sincere opinion, and more importantly, he wanted Argo to be a strong player that didn't have to worry about her safety margin.

"It's not that I haven't, it's that I failed it." Argo said. Before he could respond, he cut her off. "And it's not that I got the [Too bad try again] message either. The success rate was only about 3% on attempts the first day, but after 20 days, it's stabilized at about 20%. If I was just waiting for a better success ratio, I would have done it two weeks ago when it first leveled off." She glared at him.

The number one sign that she was worked up about something was that she was giving away information like that. There was definitely something bothering Argo, and even though it had been buried under the surface, he'd tripped over a single edge sticking out of the ground, and if he didn't dig it up and deal with it now, Kirito didn't think he could call himself [Argo's Friend] anymore no matter what her [Friend List] said. "It's worse than that, huh?"

Argo nodded sharply. "I completed the Quest perfectly, and have both [Activate Circuit] and [Generate Od] in my [Spell List]. However…" she paused, and looked around a little bit, and finally looked him in the eye. "I'll defer payment, but if you ever try to tell anyone else, you have to pay then, okay? What I'm about to tell you, I'd only sell it for five megaCol."

So, inside the value system of the information dealer, what she really wanted was this. "I promise I'll keep your secret." Kirito said, keeping his gaze square with hers.

Argo's eyes were wide, her eyebrows where pushed up and together, when she finally spoke. "My [Circuit Capacity] is zero." Argo admitted. "If I generate Od, it just dissipates without being gathered. I completed the quest, it's just that when the RNG rolled up my stats, I got a crit fail and I have zero circuits."

Kirito didn't have any good response to that, so he just said a shallow thing with sincere sympathy. "That's bad."

"Yeah." Argo sighed.

It was clear that it had been eating her. Even if she looked better just for having said it aloud and confessed her worries to a friend, it wasn't like she would stop worrying about being doomed, to where she couldn't catch up, no matter what. When climbing these stairs, if she couldn't keep her stats up, she wouldn't be able to keep climbing. Just thinking about it made Kirito feel frustrated, too.

"Argo." Kirito said. "Listen, even if in the future you fall behind, then… you should at least be proud that it was because of your support as the [Info Dealer] that everyone succeeded until now. Because of the [Argo's Guide] that you've produced, there are lots of people who avoided trouble, so no matter what, you have that to be proud of."

Argo turned, glancing off to the side, before she spoke. "I don't want to be someone who looks only back, and not forward, Kiribou."

Kirito grimaced, muttering a "yeah" as he acknowledged what a fair point that was. "Well, it's pointless to worry about boss fights in an expansion pack that hasn't even been released, so its fine for now. And…" Kirito licked his lips. He hesitated before he spoke. "if you need support in the future, you can rely on me, okay?"

Kirito felt sick after he said those words. Because it was hypocrisy. On that very first day, when he had been forced to chose between supporting someone and making himself more powerful, he had chased after his own strength as fast as he could. Could he really offer those words to Argo?

She had her back to him, halfway between where he was standing and the hut. They couldn't see each other's faces, and he didn't understand anything but the very surface when she spoke. "Kiribou… thanks for being my friend." She seemed to gather herself, before twisting in place. "Now, let's go see if you DQ'd yourself by cheating on the quest, ne?"

Kirito hadn't considered that at all. "You don't really think so, do you?" He asked. After thinking about it, he got even more worried. "Hey, he's not going to leave the whiskers on, is he!?"

Argo laughed, dancing over to the hut. "Only one way to find out!"


	14. 4:3 Introducing Johnny Black

His name was Johnny Black.

Not in real life. In the game. Unlike in real life, names were all picked as part of the character image, so it was completely appropriate to judge people based on their name, since it was something they had consciously chosen to be judged by. His was simple and easy to remember, but it was also whimsical and slightly ominous, or rather, that was the image he was going for.

Right now he was in a pinch.

The road between the first town of the second floor, [Urbus], and the second town, which he didn't know the name of yet, was pretty long. Since both towns were on two different mountains, the road was pretty long, and full of switchbacks as it went down the first mountain, across a bridge over a river canyon, and then up the second mountain. Right now he was in the bluffs of the second mountain, so visibility was poor.

Since it was still early in the exploration period of the second floor, the road was pretty deserted, or at least, he thought it looked that way.

He was being followed.

The other guy was using a [Sneaking] skill, but it wasn't enough to beat his [Searching] skill. But he wasn't sure that it really had all that much to do with it, since the GM had basically announced he was nerfing all the support skills during the beginning of the [Death Game].

He had mixed feelings about the [Death Game]. In a life where he was bored by everything, where he casually despised the world for being colorless and grey, he already knew what emotions this story was supposed to make him feel. He was supposed to learn the meaning and joy of his everyday life, and then when he was released from this blood-colored world, it would tint his grey world rose colored.

He didn't feel anything like that. Compared to his shitty everyday life, and compared to those shitty everyday people like his parents, it wasn't like he actually missed any of it. The danger of death was scary, but after cursing the sanitized, boring world, letting something like [Fear of Death] hold him back wouldn't be wisdom, but rather, the absolute pinnacle of hypocrisy.

Johhny Black wanted to be a more colorful guy than that.

Even if the specifics were different because he'd never really thought about it, wasn't this what he wished for? Since Kayaba Akihiko had granted his wish for a more colorful reality, he had no intention of complaining. That was like complaining because his winning lottery ticket only paid out in hundreds of pounds of copper instead of in actual currency. Someone that complained that the wonderful prize wasn't perfect was an ungrateful guy colored like shit. Johnny Black had no intention of being so uncool, not when this was the colorful world he'd inarticulately wanted.

Like his pinch right now.

Getting staked out by pickpockets in Shinjuku or wherever was pretty interesting, but in the end, most pickpockets were just more shitty people trying to scrape a shitty living in a shitty world. Once you had met three of them, the novelty wore off and they were just as grey as everyone else.

So compared to walking down the grey concrete world under neon lights surrounded by thousands of people just as shitty as him:

Now he was wandering up a mountain by himself in a cool outfit, while the big sunset cast everything in warm lights and cool shadows like a Western movie, while he stood all alone while a figure in black stalked him from behind.

Compared to getting rolled by six guys too cowardly to do it by themselves or swiped by someone who didn't even want a confrontation at all, this game was far more interesting, more dramatic, and more colorful than anything his real life had been.

With a casual motion while he pretended to ignore the guy in front of him, Johnny Black rested his hand on the hilt of his knife. He even went so far as to whistle a jaunty tune to himself, just to be more colorful.

Carefully, he kept his back turned. He flipped open his Circuit. It hurt, but it was a cool pain, like when his lungs hurt after running and escaping from too many guys that brought pipes to an ambush. It was a pain like he'd challenged himself and won. He used the [Reinforcement] on his eyes and ears, and even though it wasn't much, the sound of that guy's muffled steps was slightly louder, slightly more obvious.

The other guy didn't have his Circuit open. Johnny was about to scold the other guy in his mind, but stopped when he realized it could have been deliberate. Since you could tell when other people had their Circuit open, this guy could have deliberately kept it closed to improve his stealth odds. If Johnny hadn't already known, then he wouldn't have been able to tell just by sensing this other guy's prana.

He heard the steps come up behind him, and then, at just the right time, turned and looked.

"Yo." He said, with a cheerful smile and a delighted voice, turning to look at this other guy. With a sweeping glance, Johnny Black took this guy's appearance all in.

Dark pants and a dark shirt with leather-type armor and a knife equip, and a face that was surprisingly old. If you were to think about what kind of guy would try and use the pick-pocket skill, your natural inclination would be to think a young kid, one of those paint-by-numbers lovable scamp types that was too young and insecure to challenge monsters, but was willing to bank on their adorableness buying them sympathy from other players, or at least a margin of safety if they were caught. But compared to that, this square-jawed guy was even older than Johnny Black, in his mid-twenties or so.

Even as that guy took a startled step back with a hilariously surprised expression on his face, a notification box popped up in Johnny's vision.

[Pick-Pocket attempt failed!]

Based on the flick of the other guy's eyes and the concerned look on his face, he could see it too. His character cursor turned colors from [green] to [orange]. Since the attempt at a stealthy crime failed, the whole game would recognize this guy as a criminal now.

"Yo." Johnny repeated his greeting.

The other guy didn't even say anything back, he didn't draw his knife to fight, he just turned and ran, sprinting down the path.

Johnny laughed, and took off running after the guy. The other guy might have been slightly faster, but with the switchbacks going back and forth, it wasn't like he could make the most of his speed, and in the first place, unless he stopped to Reinforce himself, his stamina bar would go down faster than Johnny's would.

Well, even if the stamina bar went down, there was no effect on his breathing, so there was nothing to keep him from shouting or talking while running at the same time.

"Thieving?" Johnny called after the other guy. "That's kinda pointless in a multiplayer game, you know? Targeting other players, either they're stronger than you or their gear isn't worth your time."

The other guy skidded to a halt, and took the switchback, sprinting away.

Instead, Johnny changed direction by jumping off a convenient rock. It looked pretty precarious, but the scenery was pretty static, so it wasn't like it would break in place from that, so he was able to gain on the guy.

"And since you're Orange, no matter what I do, even if I chase you like this, it's still counted as self-defense, you know?" Johnny continued. "That's so hilarious."

When he judged the distance was right, Johnny struck a pose while running, and pulled of a lunging knife skill, swiping the guy and knocking him off balance. His HP only went down a little bit though. That was definitely the weakness of knife skills, was how little damage they did.

When the guy pinwheeled a bit before landing, he had the most ridiculous expression, like he couldn't believe what had just happened. "Are you crazy?" He demanded. "Are you trying to kill me?"

Johnny laughed, and dropped into a stance, holding his knife. "You're the one that challenged a match, so why are you complaining about the rules now? Are you really that stupid?"

"Dammit!" The guy cursed, pulling his weapon from inventory. It was a one-handed curved sword, almost the size of a machete. Compared to Johnny his weapon was much scarier, but somehow he was already acting like the terrified victim.

Johnny sneered, and opened his inventory with his off hand, and he materialized a vial of bright green stuff. The color was already suspicious, but the skull motif on the stopper was the most exciting thing.

Since a knife couldn't do enough by itself, something like this was necessary. The other guy just stood around like a rube while Johnny activated the use icon, although he took an almost involuntary step back when the vial shattered and the bright green stuff appeared on Johnny's knife.

This was the thing Johnny was most proud of in the whole fake world of Aincrad. In fact, even he would admit it was kind of pathetic, but there was nothing he was more proud of in the real world than how bright green that stuff was, either.

Because it was the proof of his [Unique Spell]. It wasn't really anything special, just another kind of [Reinforcement Specialization], and he was confident that other players would come up with the exact same idea as him, but for now it was something [Unique]. Turning the [Paralyzation Poison] from the dull green of its normal appearance to this electrical bright green was the evidence of his [Extend Poison] magic. He'd seen on TV once that poison and drugs both wore off as the body digested them, so what he did was apply the [Reinforce Durability] parameter to the poison that was sold in a shady corner of the Starting City. He imagined the molecules of poison in the liquid becoming harder and more resistant to the white blood cells or whatever it was that digested them. When the game had acknowledged his cleverness with the [Unique Spell] screen, it was the best praise that he had received in his whole shitty life.

"Let's gamble!" Johnny gleefully said. "If you can tag me even once with that sword, I'll let you go. If I tag you even once with this knife, I'll let you go!"

The other guy took a step back, holding the sword in front of him like it was a cross and he was a vampire of something. "What's the catch?"

Johnny chuckled. "The gamble is just with yourself. What kind of poison did I add? Is it [Damage Over Time] that will kill you slowly? Will you have to save vs [Instant Death]? Is it paralysis?" Johnny grinned. "That's the gamble!"

"And if I say no?" The other guy was probably trying to sound menacing as he said that, and it was true he kinda held the sword like he knew what he was doing, but since he took another step back at the same time, it wasn't like Johnny was all that concerned.

So he lunged forward, and slashed with his knife. The other guy reacted slow, but he managed to get his guard up and step back, dodging.

But it wasn't a system skill, so Johnny immediately swung again, stepping forward with a laugh, forcing the other guy back. That guy was brave in his own way, though, since he chanced turning his back to turn and run, pounding down the road, taking the next switchback more nimbly, slowly building more distance.

He was a third of the way across the bridge when it happened.

Johnny had less than a tenth of his stamina bar remaining, but the other guy stopped running, staggering on unsteady feet instead as the system forced him to heave shaky breaths. He stumbled sideways, leaning against the stone railing along the side of the wide bridge, at least keeping his other sword hand somewhat free.

"Looks like the end of the line, man!" Johnny called out in a cheerful voice. "Now you're the one in a pinch, huh?"

But he had gotten careless, so when the other guy pulled the same kind of baiting opening Johnny had used way at the beginning, it caught him.

The sword launched up and out, and a sword skill pushed Johnny's HP all the way to yellow, taking more than half his HP in just one attack. That sent a frission of fear and excitement up Johnny's spine, seeing his HP bar go down so much. It hurt. It was like a huge scratch that tore open his skin, or a wide cut, and the pain radiating from it made his smile tight and savage. But it wasn't enough pain compared to his HP bar: he was more than halfway to dead, just like that.

"Got you!" He shouted, triumphant.

"Yup." Johnny cheerfully agreed. "Too bad I lied, huh?"

The incredulous expression was just fabulous, it was the best. Johnny had never seen a face so full of surprise, shock, and just that hint of betrayed dismay all at once, as when he plunged his knife into the other guy's chest. The absolute best part though, was that the guy couldn't do anything other than make that face, when he was still locked for that instant in the [Skill Cooldown].

"Ha ha ha!" Johnny laughed. "Oh man, oh man, that was just perfect, it was just, there's no other way to say it, that was perfect."

The cooldown ended, and the guy slumped backward, landing on the railing behind him, his ineffective attempt to catch himself failing when his arm bonelessly slumped over, dropping his arm over the railing. He lost a sliver of HP when his chest slammed into width of the railing, and his sword pitched from his grasp, falling into the canyon below.

Slowly, he slid forward, towards the edge.

"Hmm?" Johnny considered. He leaned over the side, peering down into the ravine. It was only about three meters deep, and since they weren't in the middle of the bridge, only about a third of the way in, it wasn't the narrow river under them, but instead a bank that was half gravel and half sand, where the river would swell bigger during the spring season.

Johnny leaned far enough forward to look the other guy in the eye, holding himself on the edge. "Hey! You've got enough HP, I bet you could survive this much falling damage, huh?"

The other guy moved his mouth, but this wasn't a [Paralysis] that would let you talk, so whatever that guy had to say, he wasn't able to create the voice he needed to say it. "What's that?" Johnny asked, cocking his head like a dog. "I can't hear you?"

The guy slid a little more, and after reaching the tipping point, fell.

Johnny laughed, as the other guy fell like a ragdoll, landing flat, facedown on the riverbank. "Ha ha ha! Lucky, man, you didn't land on your neck, lucky!" Johnny sighed, pleased. "Oh yeah and the paralysis poison should wear off in a couple hours. If you get attacked by an otter monster or something like that in the meantime I guess that would be the end!" Johnny waved, on the off chance the guy could see him out of the corner of his eye. "Now you're gonna see if you get lucky again, you know?"

With a sigh, Johnny hopped back from the side of the bridge, dismissing the orange player down there from his mind.

He started whistling again. In the bright red, yellows, and oranges painted across the sky and the rocks of the mountaintops of the colorful evening, Johnny Black walked into the sunset just like John Wayne.


	15. 4:4 Asuna, Ilya, and Those Three

"You." With her eyes narrowed, that was Ilya said as if she was uttering a curse.

Asuna blinked, and looked from her companion to the people that had just joined them in the plaza, by following Ilya's narrowed gaze.

Standing on the right of the three, next to Itagaki-san who also looked non-plussed, the slightly shorter boy with the mask blinked, looking at both his companions before he turned back to face Ilya and respond. "…me?" That was his hesitant question.

"Yes!" Ilya said, throwing up her arms, before swinging them down to place them on her hips while pouting. "I won't allow any rivals to appear, even if it's hopeless for someone on the other team!"

The masked boy replied with a voice full of confusion. "What are you even talking about?"

Ilya frowned even more fiercely. "You! You tried to pull ahead of me by giving Shirou a cooler helmet than mine! It's not fair!"

Itagaki turned to examine her companion. "So you swing that way, Hexi-sempai?" Asuna thought it was a little odd that she was asking the question seriously rather than teasing, especially since she looked a little nervous about the outcome. Also, that reminded her that the companion in the mask was called Hexadecimal, which was fortunate because Asuna hadn't remembered his name.

Hexadecimal met Itagaki's eyes, before turning his head to meet Ilya's accusing stare, and then he twisted to face the taller boy on the far side of Itagaki who only shrugged helplessly, and lastly he met Asuna's gaze, wordlessly asking, 'is this for real?' Because she knew Ilya, Asuna nodded slightly, at which the masked boy sighed, his shoulders collapsing, before he straightened himself up and faced Ilya.

"Shirou saved me, so it's only natural that I want to give him something as thanks, isn't it?" He said, glancing back and forth at the group, before casting his gaze at the ground between them so he didn't have to meet anyone's eyes. "I mean, since I have the [Tailor] skill and already bought patterns for mask-type helmets, I thought I'd use it to make something more [Sixth Ranger]-like than that…" clearly he was going to say something like 'that [Stupid Helmet]', but he paused and thought better of it when he realized Ilya had made it. Asuna approved, although she wished his pause hadn't been quite so obvious. "…that heavy-type helmet equipment." He finished.

Asuna glanced at Ilya, and decided to smooth things over by deflecting the subject, so she asked him a question. "It's unusual to hear of someone in the clearing faction picking up a support skill like [Tailor]. Isn't that usually favored by crafting players?"

Hexadecimal nodded, glancing at Asuna and then glancing away. "I guess. I mean, I didn't like any of the masks until the ones on the fourth floor, so if I wanted one I liked, I had to make it myself. That was literally the first thing I did this time." He seemed to wince slightly, realizing that was skirting dangerously close to bringing up subjects that most people left out of polite conversation.

Itagaki was examining his face. "In that case, Hexi-sempai," she said, "I would like to request that you make me a cuter and more elegant dress to go underneath my armor."

Hexadecimal squirmed while their third companion chuckled slightly, although Asuna was more concerned about the way Ilya was beginning to fume.

"Right," Asuna said, stepping forward to draw their attention, even as she opened the menu to send out the party invites to everyone, "So now that we're all here, let's begin our part of the [Second Floor Mapping Quest], shall we?"

Hexadecimal and Ilya merely nodded, but both Itagaki and the other guy shouted 'Osu' like they were in a dojo. Itagaki had hinted at being in the naginata club in high school, and Asuna remembered that the other guy fought like a kendoka, so it made sense that he would also respond like someone in a martial arts club.

Compared to that, the way they glanced down and then tapped the holographic popups only they could see was the part that looked out of place, although they did it casually and naturally. Asuna was already beginning to think of the menu as normal, rather than something unnatural from the game.

Since she could see their names listed in the party screen under her own HP bar, she could deduce that the last guy was named [One Snow]. That's right, Diabel had said his name that time, hadn't he?

As they walked east from the gate plaza and out of the [Urbus Safe Zone], Asuna stepped ahead to catch up with Ilya. The other three chatted among themselves like friends, and Asuna shared a secretive nod with Itagaki, thanking the other girl for giving her space to talk with Ilya.

"Ilya-chan", Asuna began, "is something wrong?"

Ilya frowned. "When you messaged me to go mapping, you didn't say anything about going with Diabel's lackeys."

Asuna had suspected as much, so she stifled a sigh as she closed her eyes, before looking up. Well, it fell to Asuna to act like a big sister at times like this. "That's a childish attitude, Ilya."

Ilya frowned. "Why should I get along with people I don't like?"

Asuna hummed. "Well, I like Itagaki-chan and I like Ilya-chan, so wouldn't you feel bad about making me choose between my friends?"

Ilya paused, stopping in place before looking up to meet Asuna's eyes. It wasn't necessary for her to say anything; just from the expression on her face Asuna could tell the answer was obviously no.

It was moments like this, when Ilya did something completely without empathy, that made her think Ilya was strange. She had gotten a message from Kirito, although he wasn't anywhere to be found. That message had been, [Ilya is a complicated person, so deal with her carefully]. If it had just been a warning that Ilya was dangerous, Asuna would have thought less of him, but instead she just wondered what he knew.

That was something to think about later. "Ilya," Asuna said, "If Shirou liked somebody, and you didn't like them, would you tell him to pick you over them?"

Ilya gave Asuna a look that was too complicated for Asuna to understand. Then, with her brow slightly pulled together, the shorter girl spoke, saying only, "of course."

Asuna nodded. "And what if he chose them over you?"

Ilya opened her mouth, but Asuna spoke first.

"In that case," Asuna said, "wouldn't it be better not to force Shirou to pick between you and somebody else? Obviously there are limits, but as a rule, it's better to put effort into getting along with others just so you don't force your friends to pick if they happen to know both of you. Maybe you have a problem with Diabel, but he's not here. Maybe his friends are, but Itagaki-chan is my friend, too. If you can set aside complaining about Diabel, than you can also trust me that we won't rub him in your face, okay?" Asuna finished her speech while suppressing an annoyed sigh.

If there was one thing she didn't like about her fellow girls, it was this tendency to pick unnecessary fights over personal conflicts. Compared to school or work, it was important to take [SAO] with the same amount of professionalism, and that meant accepting differences and letting them lie to peacefully finish projects with a minimum of fuss. If you had a personality clash with someone, the fastest and safest way to deal with them was by scrupulously maintaining polite distance, instead of creating an unnecessary confrontation.

It frustrated Asuna when others ignored such an obvious thing as that.

Ilya mulled that over for a little while before she responded. "And what," she finally said, "if it's something that I can't ignore no matter what?"

Asuna stopped, turning to look down at Ilya. "Ilya." She said with a frown while maintaining eye contact. "That's not the case here so don't start a pointless fight."

It was Ilya that looked away first. "If you say so."

"Excuse me."

Both girls turned, and Itagaki smiled brightly when she see they had her attention. "I apologize for the interruption," she said with a slight bow, "but Hexi-sempai has noticed a minotaur type of monster, so he wanted to let you know."

Asuna glanced past Itagaki. One Snow was deliberately looking away, but Hexadecimal waved hesitantly before pointing almost perpendicular to the walking line of the group. Asuna followed his indication, and sure enough, she saw a tall and muscular humanoid figure with wide horns coming out of a bull head. He was carrying an axe.

"I'll take care of it." Ilya said.

"What?" Asuna asked, but Ilya had already started walking to the monster.

Sharing a glance at Itagaki, Asuna started following after her. After a short pause, Itagaki also followed, with her two party members running to catch up at the same time.

The four teenagers trailed after the sullen girl.

"Ilya," Asuna said, "we need to plan first, okay?"

"One Snow." Hexadecimal said. His voice was softer, but it lacked the hesitation he had when they had been talking earlier. "Move to engage on the front, to the left of Ilya, and draw Aggro. Itagaki will circle around on your left flank. Itagaki, try to get two-thirds of the way around compared to Ilya. Asuna-san, please support Ilya from her left flank. I will move around behind."

Both his party members agreed with the same half-shouted "Osu" that you would expect from members of martial arts clubs, while Asuna was caught off-guard, and stuttered out a "Hai". She hadn't been expected to be accommodated into their teamwork so quickly and easily.

Ilya didn't look back at them and she didn't acknowledge their words, but she walked more quickly. If she was moving any faster, she would have been jogging, not just walking.

The monster turned, and with a roar, began approaching with thumping steps of its hoofed legs, changing the way it held its axe, moving to a guard position from a rest position. From here, Asuna could see that it was named [Plains Taurus], a basic field mob. Still, there was only limited data available on it, so it was too hard to say whether they were in danger or not.

Ilya stopped in front of the monster, staring up at it. Asuna could feel the flow as she started circulating prana through her circuit. Ilya was extremely easy to detect that way, shining like a light bulb compared to the candle of a regular player's prana. However, she didn't move into a fighting position or even remove her two-handed sword from her back.

"Ilya-chan!" Asuna shouted, worried. She drew her rapier, and poured prana into it, condensing a charge into her sword.

With a roar, the [Plains Taurus] stepped forward, swinging its axe back to begin a [Skill], but as it glared down at Ilya, its roar stopped. Asuna paused in confusion when she saw that it was standing motionless.

"Tch." Ilya clicked her teeth in annoyance as she finally unslung her sword. "Too easy." With her sword unlimbered, Ilya took a broad stance with her sword held parallel to the ground. It charged a deep red, and finally she fired a [Horizontal]. However, rather than rising up to slice across the stomach of the monster, she instead dipped it down, so that it dug into the monster's thigh right about the knee.

Without any voluntary movement, the monster collapsed into the ground, its front leg swept out from under it and tumbling across the ground along the path of Ilya's devastating slash.

Ilya raised her sword over her head, and swung it down into a [Vertical].

And again.

And again.

After the third savage blow, the helpless monster ran out of HP, and shattered into polygons.

Asuna stared.

"See." Ilya said, with a superior smirk as she swung her two-handed sword around, awkwardly maneuvering it to fit onto her back. "You were all useless because I did it by myself."

"Ilya-san." Hexadecimal interrupted the beginning of her monologue without any hesitation. Even though the bottom half of his face was covered, he obviously had an intense expression. Asuna could tell just by looking at his eyes.

He stepped forward, so that he was standing directly before Ilya. She stared up at him with a challenging expression as he spoke again. "Did you just use a [Spell] to paralyze that monster in place?"

Asuna glanced. Itagaki and One Snow both had sour expressions, like they were reliving a bad experience, and glancing at the challenging expression on Ilya's face, she was beginning to worry that the confrontation she'd talked Ilya out of was going to happen anyway.

"Yes." Ilya said without flinching or backing down. "That was a [Mystic Eye of Binding], which causes paralysis with instant hypnosis."

Hexadecimal nodded. "I see." He said with a solemn expression, walking forward until he was right next to Ilya. Her head continuously tilted back, but she didn't lean back or retreat even one step. Then, he dropped to his knees so that he was sitting in seiza in front of Ilya. Just like that, he was no longer looming over her. "Ilya." He said.

"No." He corrected himself. "Ilya-sensei." He reached forward, grabbing her right hand between both of his hands. Everyone ignored the harassment warning popup. "Please teach me that amazing [spell]!"

Ilya blinked, gobsmacked. "w-what?" She said.

Hexadecimal nodded seriously. "On the first floor, your brother saved us from a [Kobold] mob that had a paralysis effect. At that time, I decided I wanted to be able to do that same kind of magic, so please teach me."

"Ho ho." Ilya chuckled, suddenly smiling with a sharp expression. "Well, for someone that recognizes how incredible I am, I'm willing to be very lenient. But…."

Her glance slid aside to look at Asuna, who instantly had an ominous feeling.

"It's normal for a [Quest-giver] to send the player to go fetch something," Ilya mused, "So before I teach you, you have to equip a [Maid Dress] on Asuna-chan, okay?"

Hexadecimal head rotated, and his eyes walked up and down Asuna's body. It was like his gaze was a tape measure being emotionlessly applied to her body just to reduce her to measurements. Then his head rotated back as he returned his attention to Ilya. "The dress is no problem." He announced without any regard for the repercussions. "However, I can't guarantee that she'll equip it."

"H-hey!" Asuna said, failing to interrupt them.

"Hmm." Ilya said, tapping her chin. "In that case, if you provide the dress for Asuna-chan that's fine, but if you can't guarantee that it will be equipped, I think I'll add the condition that you three need to wear appropriate equipment too."

One Snow took a shaky step back. Looking at him, Asuna instantly had the same image as if by telepathy: the super masculine and buff One Snow standing with his arms crossed in a solid stance as he cross-played with a [Maid Dress] equipped.

Itagaki raised an eyebrow, and the added her own opinion in a cool voice. "I wouldn't be happy if Hexi-sempai asked me to wear a maid dress because another girl asked for it."

Hexadecimal nodded seriously before he continued bargaining. It was not clear at all whether he had even noticed what his friends said or if he was just responding to Ilya. "Instead of that," he said, "I'll provide a [Butler Suit] or a [Tuxedo] in Shirou's size."

"Both!" Ilya shouted with great enthusiasm and no hesitation.

"Deal." Hexadecimal said as his own immediate reply.

Because he was still gripping her right hand between his, Ilya stuck her left hand out above them to seal the agreement with a handshake, and Hexadecimal released his grip to solemnly grasp their left hands together, shaking exactly twice. It was just an illusion from when she watched anime as a little girl, but Asuna definitely imagined a great wave dramatically crashing against a rocky cliff in the sunset behind them.

Itagaki, One Snow, and Asuna had witnessed it.

A terrible friendship was born.


	16. 4:5 The Good Samaritan

"It's probably a trap."

With his face pressed against the riverbed, he could barely see the gangly figure leaning over the edge of the bridge staring down at him. Of course, the floating lightning bolt symbol next to his HP bar indicated that he was still paralyzed.

His name was Takeda Shintarou, and he had already repented and begged for help, but only inside his heart, because his arms, legs, neck, and vocal cords would not obey his commands. He lay face-down and motionless on the simulated river bed, while people walked back and forth on the bridge above. Of the tens of people that crossed the bridge, this was only the third time he'd been noticed.

"Really?" The teenager that was staring down at him twisted to address an unseen companion.

"He's bait, trying to lure us somewhere he can ambush us." It was another male voice, this one confident and authoritative. "After all, his icon is orange."

They couldn't hear him. But it didn't matter. Just like the last two times, they took one look at the only thing the system would show them at that distance, the color of his icon, and assumed he was a bad guy out to get them.

The gangly figure disappeared from the edge of the bridge.

He begged them to stay.

Of course, with his whole body including his voice paralyzed, they obviously had no way of hearing the words he was incapable of saying.

Night would fall soon. When that happened, it would already be a day that he'd been stuck at the bottom of this gorge, waiting without being able to act, without being able to do anything.

He was mentally and emotionally exhausted. He apologized to everyone for allowing his cowardice to push him away from fighting, even when he let his desire to be a strong player lead him forward. Caught between the contradiction of his fear and his ambition, he'd succumbed to the temptation of using his [pick-pocket] skill.

He'd chosen the [pick-pocket] skill because he'd read in an FAQ that it was a prerequisite for the [Treasure Finding] skill that was valued by players in the Beta Test. His goal had been to play a thief or rogue type of character, but the rewards of the [Pick Pocket] skill on non-humanoid mobs was too low compared to the terror of entering a fight, and he wasn't strong enough to target the only humanoids on the First Floor, the [Kobolds]. So….

If only he'd had better equipment, if only he had more resources, he could make up the difference with [Col]. The strong players had already moved on to the second floor, and the monsters around the starting city of the second floor were all cows and bugs anyway, so the first-floor dungeon, which was now clear of players, was still the best hunting grounds for him. If only he could improve his margin with gear from the second floor, he could clean up.

So he'd given into the temptation to rob a few players. Even if they caught him, he figured, even if they were angry, it wasn't like they'd kill him, so it wasn't as scary as the holographic monsters.

He was wrong.

Not just about how dangerous the players would be. He was wrong to have done it in the first place. He repented. So why was he still here? He'd already been trapped here for nearly 24 hours. No one had helped him.

Once night fell the rat mobs would start coming out.

Hearing them randomly move up and down the river bank, watching them skitter into and out of his paralyzed field of view, knowing they were around but not being sure of where, knowing that if they happened to wander close enough to trip their aggro… that helpless expectation was terror.

There was a sound like a huge thud beside him. A dull sound like something heavy had slammed into the mud.

And then he was lifted up. His head lolled uselessly and his arms and legs dangled, but even so, he was lifted up. His right arm was pulled over his savior's head, and pulled around so that his right arm wrist was held by his savior's hand, which was clamping his legs against the right side of the body, as he lay face-down across his savior's shoulders, his left arm dangling straight down behind them as his savior pulled him up into the orthodox fireman's carry.

"It's alright." The voice was warm and kind. It was probably the warmest and kindest voice that Takeda Shintarou had heard in his whole life, although he wasn't in a position to judge that objectively. "I've got you." But the strongest impression, was what a happy and content voice it was. This person was truly relieved for his sake.

Clad all in white with a red scarf. How about that, Takeda thought with something like amazement. Those rumors about the [Sixth Ranger] were true after all.

The figure started walking, a confident pace as he walked along the edge of the river floodplain. It was a steady rhythm, and after that long day of terror, even though he was still completely helpless, he felt saved. The exhaustion and fatigue caught up with him, and with a feeling like a sigh of relief, he drifted off to sleep.

He woke up when he felt a sudden jerk, like falling forward a step, or like vertigo in the pit of his stomach, even though he remained completely limp. His eyes darted around, and the darkness of full night caught him by surprise. His eyes darted to his HP bar, which was still in the yellow zone, and his stamina bar, which was still full, but his attention was immediately arrested by the paralysis indicator to the side of both of them. The sensation wore off. He twitched his dangling left hand, and felt that he had completely recovered his ability to move with unnatural abruptness.

"Hey." He said.

The Sixth Ranger, who was carrying him, stopped walking and stood calmly in place at that, before he spoke. "Are you alright?"

Shintarou smiled grimly. "Yeah. The paralysis wore off so I should be able to stand."

"That's good." His savior agreed, gently setting him down. It was pointless for a holographic body, but for the psychosomatic effect, Shintarou rolled his neck and back, stretching his body as he moved under his own volition for the first time in a day. He glanced around. "We're almost to Urbus, aren't we?"

"Yes." His companion nodded. He was tall, almost two meters, wearing the famous one-piece white jumpsuit, as well as a white mask like something a ninja would wear, except for the three red spikes like a star that radiated out from the forehead, one down over the nose and the other two like horns, all in an equilateral shape. Compared to the long scarf wrapped around his neck that dangled down to his mid-back, those spikes were the exact same color. His eyes were golden.

From what Shintarou could tell, this famous guy was surprisingly young, maybe even still a teenager, based on the way the skin around his eyes didn't wrinkle when he squinted while staring.

The Sixth Ranger moved forward. "Let's go." He said.

"Right." Shintarou said, stepping to keep pace when his companion started walking. He saw the purple text box announcing the [Urbus Safe Zone] float into view. Even though there was no lighting effect, he imagined it wreathed in a descending beam of light, that safe zone announcement.

"Halt!"

Both glanced to the side.

Three figures in medium armor equipment walked forward. Somehow they had come up without being seen, or rather, they had simply appeared there out of nowhere.

Shintarou glanced up, at the shapes floating over their heads, rather than at them personally. Those icons… they were NPCs, the [Town Guards]. They probably had literally popped out of nowhere, then.

"We don't want any trouble." The Sixth Ranger said, stepping into a wider stance as he dropped his center of gravity. Despite his words, it was obvious he was preparing for trouble.

"It's no use." Shintarou said miserably. "They're just programmed to keep me out, because…" he hesitated, struggling with it, before admitting what they both already knew. "Because I'm an orange player."

There was a pause as the Sixth Ranger thought about his words. Just looking at his back, it was completely impossible for Shintarou to tell what he was thinking, before he finally spoke in a quiet voice. "Is there no other way?"

The guards were getting closer.

"No other way than what?" Shintarou asked.

The guards drew the swords at their hips, readying their shields.

Sixth Ranger equipped a one-handed curved sword.

"Are you resisting arrest?" One of the guards said. The stilted, over-delivered line would have just been bad voice acting, if it wasn't proof that these weren't people, but simply pieces of code that would reduce their HP below zero without any remorse.

"Stop!" Shintarou shouted. "If you turn Orange to, I'd—"

But before he could finish, the first guard charged, raising his sword. Compared to the rest of the enemies on the floor, town guards were almost always drastically overleveled. They didn't exist as a challenge, but as an overwhelming hammer to smash whatever nails tried to put themselves above the rules.

His sword charged, glowing yellow. He launched a high-level, multi-hit sword combo. Compared to the two-hitters that were the pinnacle of what players could do, those four hits were simply demonstrating that overwhelmingly high skill number.

However, with simple steps, without rushing or stumbling, the Sixth Ranger walked back and sideways, always taking exactly one motion to move away from the strike, leaving himself completely unharmed.

Another guard stepped forward, to launch an attack at the white figure, but the Sixth Ranger had stepped so that the guard frozen in the cooldown was between them.

The third guard advanced towards Shintarou, who stepped back without thinking about it when he noticed. But, he held off from retreating, because he didn't want to abandon his savior.

"Let's retreat." The Sixth Ranger suggested.

"Right." Shintarou agreed, heaving a sigh of relief, turning and running away from the terrifying NPCs that were between him and the safe zone.

He heard a clang, and looked over his shoulder without slowing down.

The Sixth Ranger had parried an attack, a fighting retreat. It was shameful, but there was nothing Shintarou could do to help, so the best thing to do was keep running, even if that felt like a rationalization.

When they cleared the aggro, the guards stopped. Rather than following them beyond a certain radius from the city [Safe Zone], they turned and walked back to disappear.

The Sixth Ranger was messing around with his menu, but Shintarou just collapsed, breathing out heavily as he leaned against his knees. "Damn." He muttered. "I don't…" He shook his head. "I don't know what to do." He glanced up. His companion was tapping a message, pecking out characters with his pointer finger. Shintarou couldn't see the menu, of course, but it was an obvious motion. He shook his head and stood upright when his savior was finished. "I can't ask you to stay with me." He said, admitting to something shameful. "If you're protecting me..." he trailed off, before saying something that sounded pretty melodramatic. "You can't be out saving others." Somehow, that kind of super-sentai line seemed appropriate.

The Sixth Ranger paused. Rather than stopping what he was doing, he simply stilled in place, like a machine that locked up because of an error. The expression on his face was deeply conflicted.

Finally, he moved in place, glancing down, before tapping once. After a pause, he spoke. Rather than something deep, it was just a simple question. "What does OMW mean?" He asked.

Shintarou blinked, and then rubbed his chin with the back of his hand. "As a text acronym? 'On My Way,' probably."

The Sixth Ranger nodded. "I see." He glanced up, looking back at the gate. "Then it seems that we'll have company soon."

"…Should I be worried?" Shintarou said, thinking of the color of the cursor that floated over his head where everyone could see.

The Sixth Ranger shook his head. "No. He's a beta tester who knows a lot about the game, so he should be able to tell us something."

Shintarou decided against asking the question he really wanted to ask, about how this stranger felt about orange players, and instead trust the guy standing in front of him. "Okay." He said, sighing.

He looked around, and trudged over to sit down when he found an appropriate rock.

"How would you save everyone?"

Shintarou blinked, looking up. He had been wiggling in place trying to get more comfortable, but instead he looked up as the Sixth Ranger had spoken.

"If saving one person means not saving others," The Sixth Ranger asked, "How would you save everyone?"

Shintarou finished wiggling, settling in place, buying time while he crossed his hands. It was the kind of question a child would ask, but on the other hand, in this childish situation called the [Death Game], here was a guy who charged around saving people… or stealing their kills, depending on which rumors you believed. Based on his own experiences Shintarou was certain it was the first one, so he decided to answer the question seriously.

Even if it was a childish question for a childish scenario, it was their deadly serious reality.

"Well," Shintarou said, "I guess you would make it so they didn't need saving in the first place?" He said, rubbing his neck. "I mean, it's like wearing a seat belt in a car. Even if there's an accident, it's protection that makes it less likely you'll need a doctor to save your life. So if you want to save everyone, I guess that would be the way to do it."

"Make it so they don't need saving in the first place, huh." The Sixth Ranger said, sighing. "That sounds like an excuse."

Shintarou scowled. "You're the one that asked."

"I know." The other man responded, before sitting down, himself. Something in the tired and withdrawn way he had replied made Shintarou sure the complaint had not been aimed at him, but had been pointed inward.

Looking at the other guy's face, Shintarou grunted. "Well, for what it's worth… thank you. For saving me, at least." He smiled, and made a weak joke. "For me, it was a pretty big deal."

The Sixth Ranger smiled. Looking at the way his eyes crinkled, it was exactly the same smile as before, the sincere happiness at Shintarou being saved rather than pride at saving him.

Shintarou glanced aside. Somehow, it was painful to look at the smile. Not because of anything in that Sixth Ranger guy, but because the purity of it reminded Shintarou that he was just a sinner.

There was another player running towards them.

That was what drew the two of them out of their thoughts, was the sound of running feet as they were approached. The new guy was certainly a teenager, with a one-handed sword over his back, and a dark color theme built around his long black duster coat.

He came to a stop, breathing with regular deep breaths, glancing back and forth between the two of them, his eyes flicking to the cursor over Shintarou's head without saying anything. Then he turned to look at the Sixth Ranger.

"I thought you were fighting the town guards." He said, halfway asking a question.

The Sixth Ranger just shrugged.

The black swordsman just sighed in an exaggerated manner. "I got your message and assumed you were in trouble, but I guess that was just reading too much into it, huh?" He leaned back, putting his left hand on his hip while his right dangled straight down. "Well, I happened to be pretty close, so it's not a big deal."

"Thank you for your help." The Sixth Ranger said.

"But I didn't do anything." Was the dry response of the black swordsman.

The Sixth Ranger shrugged expressively. "Well, thank you for coming to help, then."

"Yeah, yeah." With a sigh, the black swordsman turned to face Shintarou, who stood up. He tried to be careful about not making any threatening moves, but despite himself, that very carefulness was probably suspicious. The way the new guy's eyes flicked between his hands and feet was proof of that. Then, he spoke to Shintarou. "So you're the orange player, huh?" His voice was neutral, studiously casual.

"Ah, yes." Shintarou said, nodding uncomfortably.

The black swordman nodded. "First offense?"

Shintarou blinked. "You mean…" He trailed off, thinking about it, then nodded. "Yes, this is the first time."

The teenager nodded. "I see." He rubbed his chin, supporting that arm at the elbow with his other hand. "The first and second time, it turns back after 48 hours, the third time requires a quest, and the fourth offense is, as far as anyone knows, permanent."

"I see." Shintarou said. A giddy, relieved smile came to his face. "So it will turn back naturally, huh? That's… good to hear."

"Yeah." The black swordsman nodded. "I suppose it is."

"How much longer?" The Sixth Ranger asked, breaking in from the outside. "Until your cursor turns back?"

Shintarou checked the system clock in his menu. "I guess, about 17 hours or so." He nodded. "Yeah, 16 hours and 40 minutes, I think."

"I see." The Sixth Ranger stood up. "Then, we should determine what our plan is."

The black swordsman sighed, slumping in place slightly. "In for one and out for ten, huh?" He straightened up then, adjusting his equipment. "Well, since I volunteered and leaving a quest half-finished offends my pride as a gamer, I guess I'm in too."

Shintarou smiled self-consciously. It was true that he was happy, but he did have some pride as a gamer. "You guys… you don't have to treat this like an Escort Quest. I can look after myself at least this much."

The black swordsman snorted, but didn't say anything, although the way he raised an eyebrow when he glanced at the Sixth Ranger was pretty expressive.

After some further consideration, the Sixth Ranger spoke. "I found you paralyzed in a ravine." His voice was neutral, someone who wasn't speaking with any ego at all, just repeating an observation without any judgments.

Shintarou's smile grew a little stiff. "If I'm careful not to pick fights with other players, I won't have any problems with the monsters around here." He sighed. "Besides… if I took up the Sixth Ranger's time and he couldn't help other people, I would feel guilty about it." Especially, a voice whispered in his head, if it was someone innocent that deserved saving more someone like him did. He pushed that voice down for now.

"To save one person means to not save someone else, huh." With a wistful voice, the Sixth Ranger wasn't comforted by Shintarou's words, but instead, it seemed like he was going to pick up the same kind of guilt that Shintarou had.

"Isn't that a little too self-centered?" The words of the black swordsman were in no way abrupt, but simply him speaking up as someone slightly outside the situation was a surprise.

He instinctively stepped back when their attention swung to him, and he had a regretful look like someone that realized it was a trap only after they stepped on it. However, just like a summoning trap meant you had to fight a monster, he steeled himself a little bit and pushed through.

"I mean," he explained, in a slightly harried rush, "If there's someone getting saved from a threat, someone who's not getting saved from a different threat, and someone doing the saving, then that's at least five things, right? That might be common sense in single-player games, but in an MMO isn't it a little unrealistic to think that two other players would be as passive as an NPC?"

"Yes." Shintarou nodded, picking up the thread, and he felt rewarded when the black swordsman sighed in relief. The [Sixth Ranger] had that expression like a transmission that jammed trying to unexpectedly change gears again, obvious even through the mask. Neither of the other two were comfortable feeling responsible for that. "I'm thankful for your help, [Sixth Ranger]-san, but I can take responsibility for myself." He grinned, slightly embarrassed by his own words. "Even more than that, because you've saved me, I'll be more careful from now on."

The black swordsman was the one that spoke up again. "…You went all this time just going by [Sixth Ranger]?" He asked with a voice that was half incredulous and half teasing.

That [Sixth Ranger] absently swatted in the black swordsman's direction but otherwise ignored him. Instead, he addressed Shintarou. "Well, if that's what you've decided, I have no complaints."

"You're a pretty good guy." The black swordsman said to Shintarou. 'For an orange player' went unsaid, although hearing it not being said might have just been Shintarou's imagination. "If that guy", the black swordsman, "goes so far as to ask for my help on a quest I can't refuse, but as a gamer, I prefer anti-climatic ones to [Escort Missions], so this is fine." He paused, realizing he was rambling. "Well," he continued, "if you need to message me, then I go by Kirito."

"Shirou." The Sixth Ranger, no, Shirou, said. "That's me."

Shintarou smiled, and bowed properly. "My name…" He paused. Because, saying [My name is Takeda Shintarou] was not accurate in this place, was it? Even though he always picked a character name properly, no matter what the game was, he always thought of himself by that name. But now, with a sensation like being born again, he realized that in this holographic world, he was wrong to just continue making the same mistakes he had make in the real world. So, thinking like that, he decided to begin with simply his name. "My name is Kains."

Soft wind blew through the rustling grass in the night.

Shirou nodded, turning away, facing back towards the mountain road they had come down. "Take care of yourself, Kains."

The swordsman in black, Kirito, rolled his neck, and adjusted the sword hanging on his back. "You're still going out there?"

Shirou shrugged. "We're staying in the next town, so I should head back."

Kirito raised an eyebrow. "It's already pretty late, so is she really going to wait that long?"

"Yes." Shirou said, with no hesitation and much resignation. "It can't be helped, so I'll just have to run the whole way."

They both didn't believe him, but it was Kains that spoke up first. "Is that even possible?"

Shirou took a pose like a track star preparing himself. "With Reinforcement, it is." Without any further words, he fired himself like a bullet and began running at high speed.

"And people say I'm an idiot." Kirito muttered, turning and walking back towards Urbus. Four steps away, he paused. "Are you really going to be okay by yourself?"

Kains nodded. "Yes, I'll be fine."

"Then, take care." Kirito said, pausing a moment. Even with his back turned, Kains could tell he was struggling with something. "You… I'm not someone that usually criticizes other peoples' playing style, but…."

"It's fine, I understand." Kains said, interrupting while the other struggled to articulate his reservations. "I can't defend myself, other than saying, that I want to redeem myself, so that the kindness I've received isn't wasted."

"Then, that's just fine." Kirito nodded. "Well, take care of yourself, then." Without any concerns or need to look back, the black swordsman returned to his own path.

Compared to the Black Swordsman who went down the road one way, and the Sixth Ranger who went down the road the other way, Kains could do neither, and would instead need to wander off the road into those shadowy fields for a night.

Grasses rustled, a soothing sound in the wind. Even if he was going off the road into the darkness, Kains smiled. Because, in his heart, he was taking the first step onto a sunny path he could be proud of.


	17. 4:6 TD 2

"This is for the best." Rin said, sighing, as she watched the emergency responders loading Ilya into the specially modified ambulance. "After all, they'll be better off with the professional care they could get in a hospital, compared to what they could get here."

"Hmm." Ryuudo Issei pushed the glasses up his nose while he considered that. For now, he decided to leave aside the question of why Ilya, the younger sister unconnected by blood, had been set up in the same bedroom as Shirou. That was something Shinji definitely wouldn't have let slide, but…

Issei ended that train of thought by force and turned his attention to what his archrival was saying. "Rin," he said, "Since I've fully agreed with this since the beginning, there's no reason to try and convince me." He nodded. "Unless it's really yourself you're trying to convince. I objected to him getting tangled up with you, but I guess it's possible for even a devil to feel something like affection."

"Issei," Rin said with a warm and terrible smile, "if you keep talking like that, you might make me mad." The perfect façade of the honor student was cracking and something like the light of hell was shining through.

"Right." Issei said in shaky agreement. "Then they'll load them both into the ambulances and carry them to the hospital in Tokyo." He sighed. "I hope it goes off without a problem."

"…Yes." Rin put down her grudge and unwillingly agreed with the guy that kept pushing a fight on her. "I carefully unplugged them and got them ready, so there shouldn't be any problems."

Issei, who had stood by the side of the middle school student council president while she struggled with the PA system during school assemblies, felt a sudden chill go down his spine at those words, such that all he could do was whisper hoarsely, "…what?"

Meanwhile, in the ambulance on its way to the specially-modified train car with the wireless link, the two-hour special transportation exemption expired and the penalty for disconnection was enforced.

Shirou's body convulsed from the nerve stimulation as powerful microwaves irradiated his brain, killing him. Even as the medics desperately tried to revive him, they knew it was already too late to save his life. The screen tilted back, and the panorama of clouds on the blue sky faded to black.

(DEAD END)

(click)

TIGER DOJO

Take the Strange Advice? (Y/N)

…Y (click)

"Osssu!" With a huge one-handed swing of her shinai, the Tiger of Fujimura demonstrated why she was feared in the kendo world by competitors and referees alike.

She placed the tip on the floor, placing her palms on the raised hilt, before frowning at the audience. "Since that other place has been cutting into our time, I haven't been able to provide Shirou-kun with the guidance he needs, so I feel like a failure as an adult."

With great hesitation, Saber used the fade effect to join the Master of the Tiger Dojo. She was still blushing, pushing the edge of her gym shirt down past her bloomers, uselessly trying to cover her pale thighs. "W-well, some things can't be helped." She mumbled. "And anyway, that's no reason to feel like a failure of an adult, Taiga-kun." Saber continued.

Tiger perked up, nodding happily, opening her mouth to thank the first disciple, before Saber spoke again.

"In comparison to everything else, I mean." Saber finished.

"You're so mean!" Tiger shouted. Although she held back from exercising corporal punishment against this First Disciple in recognition of their respective dojo strengths, that didn't keep the clawless tiger from roaring. "Where would Shirou-kun be without my help! Stuck trapped in an endless looping hell of Dead Ends, that's where! This Dojo is an absolute necessity!"

"No." Shirou, who appeared out of nowhere, immediately objected. "This is just like last time, it's something completely unrelated to what I can do."

"That's your own fault for being so OP!" Tiger roared, completely disregarding things like logic or common sense that didn't apply to tigers. "Maybe if you didn't pick on your cute teacher so much the karma flags wouldn't trip these dead ends, did you ever think of that you punk!?"

"S-Shirou," Saber said, twitching back and forth, "I believe I mentioned this last time, but please don't stare at me like that."

Shirou wiped the edge of his mouth, before forcing his eyes up to meet her blushing face. "I'm sorry, Saber." He said sincerely. "It's just that you're so beautiful, so I'm helpless against looking."

Saber's blush got three times brighter at that.

"Stop ignoring meeeee!" At the same time as the territorial roar of a tiger, the ferocious cursed Shinai whipped out, smashing Shirou in the head and blasting him in an arc until he slammed against the wall.

"That's right." Saber said, reminded. Instantly, she entered the serious mode. "Fujimura-sensei." Although she was asking for attention, the force of her charisma made it more like a command.

"H-Hai!" Under the gaze of the lion, the tiger instinctively snapped to attention.

"Last time you said something interesting." Saber said, nodding with her eyes closed. "Something like how in the Tiger Dojo, it's the First Disciple that wears the bloomers, while the Master doesn't."

Taiga blinked, not sure where this was going. "T-that's right, I suppose."

"I see." Saber opened her eyes, and leveled the shinai she somehow had into a fighting stance, pointing at straight forward under her stern gaze. "Then, I challenge you to a duel for the title of Master of this Dojo."

"Eh?" Off-guard, Taiga could only blink at this turn of events.

"Of course I won't allow you to refuse." Saber said. While the screen had switched to Taiga, her equipment had changed from the bloomers to her armored battle dress.

"L-let's talk this through…" Taiga muttered.

"Here I come!" Saber roared, lunging forward.

"Saber!" Shirou shouted. "Do your best!"

"You traitor!" Taiga cried.

"Eh?" Ilya pouted, leaping out of nowhere to land on Shirou's back, spinning around with her arms curled around his neck over his shoulders. "What's going on, Shirou?"

"Ilya?" Shirou blinked as he looked over his shoulder. "You're here too?"

"Un!" Ilya nodded cutely. "Since I was shipped in an ambulance just like you, we share the same fate, Shirou."

"I see." Shirou nodded.

"But what can we do?" Ilya said, placing her finger on her lips with a perplexed expression. "Mostly the Bad Ends happened when you didn't get enough points with the heroine, especially Sakura, but I don't think that's the case here."

"No." Shirou shook his head. "The lesson here is obvious."

Ilya didn't like it when things were obvious to Shirou but not her. It made her feel dumb. "And what's that, Shirou?" She asked with a pout.

Shirou met her eyes seriously with an expression that allowed no disagreement. "Don't let Rin handle electronics."

"Of course." Ilya said, insulted. "Everybody knows that."

"EX-" Saber began to shout something really ominous.

But before she could blow the special effects budget, the doors closed on the strange advice corner.


	18. 5:1 Griselda, Inspired

He put the fork and knife down on the plate, and pushed it away from him. "Well, then I'm off." So saying, he pushed back from the table, and stood up, reaching to place the wide-brimmed hat on his head.

"Have a good day." She murmured, smiling at him softly. He paused, glancing over to nod at her, before turning and walking out of the inn's restaurant.

She worried about him. He stood up and walked out and seemed to have adapted perfectly well, but since they shared a bed, she was aware of how badly he had adapted to the situation. His sleep was frequently interrupted by nightmares.

Sighing, she stood. Even though she knew better, it still felt odd to leave the breakfast dishes on the table like this. There was an odd guilt that she should be the one cleaning up rather than leaving it out. But, even if the NPCs left them alone, they would simply vanish without any problems.

He was the ideal husband. She had been only 17 years old when they were introduced in a formal marriage meeting, an omiai. Technically it was a constitutional right for a Japanese citizen to marry whoever they wanted to, but realistically, someone from a traditional family like hers might receive strong pressure from her parents.

So she was introduced to this older boy, someone her father had met through business connections. But, he had been pleasant and kind, and although older, four years wasn't something to be concerned about. Compared to her parents who had merely tolerated her hobby of video games, he had accepted and encouraged it. He was a mediocre player, but she was happy that he put in the effort to play games with her. In games where there were plenty of other male players who flirted with her, he never became jealous, simply trusting her in games and in the real world.

She loved him.

Her smile widened, thinking that, as she glanced down, tucking her hair behind her ear in the artificial sunlight of the crisp, clear morning in the [Starting City].

But because she loved him, she worried about him. He retreated into his role as a [Provider for his Family] to cope with the game, acting as a Blacksmith that repaired equipment for active players in exchange for living expenses. Frankly speaking, she thought that was a mistake. Because doing so exposed him to the players who had the Col and could afford to hire a [Player Smith], the ones who actively challenged the Floors. That is to say, he already had customers that had died.

Meanwhile, all she did was walk around all day. There were trash quests, but she avoided doing too much. Because with a shared page in the inventory, that was the same as a shared bank account. She was sensitive to his feelings, so she relied on him for Col to provide him the sense of power and responsibility that supported his heart. Supposedly there was a marriage mechanic, but that would be bundled with the [Guild System], so she couldn't bind herself to him with that yet.

But it was boring. Even if the [Starting City] was as big as a ward of Tokyo, and her holographic feet never got sore or tired, it was still boring to aimlessly walk around all day for weeks on end.

Especially since there was a looming threat. Namely, their levels.

Even if he maxed out his [Blacksmithing] Skill, if he didn't level up, he couldn't boost his stats enough to equip better equipment. No matter what, he would fall behind the Players who increased their level as well as their skills. He had to be worrying about it too, but she didn't want to push him, the timing didn't feel right.

Her feet had taken her to the central plaza.

However, it was different. There was something that had not been here in all the days that she had been aimlessly wandering inside the Safe Zone of the [Starting City].

The great stone archways, empty circles that stood uselessly a third of the way towards the center of the plaza from the sides, on each of the four compass directions. Those circles of stone were no longer empty nor useless. Instead, when a player approached them, a swirl of light appeared, and when the player stepped through, they vanished in that flash of swirling light.

Teleport Gates. To throw away the romantic language, they were the subway system that connected the various [Cities] on each floor. But with only the [First Floor], there was no reason or purpose to using them.

But now….

It wasn't something she did unconsciously. Rather, she deliberately started walking. She called up her menu, and for the first time since the [Official Launch], equipped her sword and light armor. Just like that, she fit in with the players, she was another one of them.

She cued up naturally. Glancing around her, she smiled with a little bit of guilt. Although her starting equipment was weak, her appearance was basically the same as all these players, who were stepping through the gate.

One guy caught her eye. He was a few places in front of her in line.

He was pathetic-looking.

He was short and fat, and his way of walking looked more like waddling than anything else. His rough and chubby face was covered in acne scars. He had a flannel bandanna and thick glasses that almost made him look like an owl. Even while she casually glanced over, he reached up and pushed them up his nose with a hand covered by a fingerless glove, while the other rested on the pommel of the sword strapped at his hip.

He was the nothing less than the Platonic form of a worthless otaku.

She watched as he waddled through the gate, and shook her head. After the [Magic Mirror] forced all of them to match their real appearances, you could really say some people lost out.

She stepped through the gate. There was a swirl, and a flash of light, and she blinked. She drifted in darkness. She was standing on nothing, wearing the clothes and equipment she had equipped, but there was nothing around her. The absolute darkness would have been totally suffocating, except that a huge menu one meter wide and one-and-a-half meters tall floated in front of her at her natural arm's length. There was a huge banner across the top and barely two selectable items in a list that had room to display tens, or countless more if the grayed-out scroll bar was activated.

[SELECT DESTININATION  
1F: Starting City  
2F: Urbus]

She reached out and touched the second option.

Light emerged, swirling like fireworks from her selection, spreading out around her until she was enveloped. And then like a falling curtain, the light effect collapsed around her.

She was standing in a rustic plaza surrounded by buildings uniformly three stories tall, constructed of brick and stucco. Compared to the [Starting City] it was smaller and browner. It was less impressive.

But as she automatically stepped forward to clear the gate, she was still deeply impressed. Because this was proof. Her standing here in this plaza was proof that the [Rune Knight] and his companions had succeeded and were going to save everyone.

It was an uplifting sensation, like when the elevator neared the top floor and the momentum made her feel lighter for a moment. For just that instant, the inertia of the elevator lessened the effect of gravity and she almost began to float. Looking around at what had been achieved by the [Rune Knight] and his companions, she sincerely agreed with those that called them [Heros] rather than just [Players].

"Hey!" She turned her head when she heard the voice shout. The spell of euphoria was broken, as she was pulled back into society again. "Over here!"

But the voice was not addressing her. The one that spoke was a teenager with a naturally sullen face, who had been slouching on a bench. No, to call him a teenager might be too generous. She wasn't sure, but she could guess he was somewhere around 12 to 14 years old, only at the very beginning of his teenage years. Even as she watched, he heaved himself up using his spear as a prop, and began walking in her direction, even though he wasn't looking at her.

"Cuvie." The one that spoke was the otaku from before. Even his voice was perfectly stereotypical, slightly nasal and too high pitched, a voice that always sounded like it was whining. "Where's Bones?" He asked.

She stood in place, casually studying the architecture of the church that stood over the plaza. It was a little rude to be listening in, but on the other hand, it was a conversation in a public place.

The boy shrugged expressively. "I dunno. You want to message him?"

The otaku sighed, rubbing his face. "I guess." With a grumble, he swiped open his menu. Naturally she couldn't see it, but everyone could recognize that motion.

"I hope he's okay." The boy, who had been called Cuvie, muttered.

The otaku snorted, before he completed typing his message with a flourish, jabbing at what she presumed was the send button. "Don't worry. He's strong."

"If you say so." The boy said with an uncertain voice.

"Don't worry about it." The otaku said in an encouraging voice, before his tone took a darker turn. "I'm just annoyed that he's late for a meeting. The faster we get this over with the better."

"What's the matter Yona?" The boy asked. With a start, she realized that the feminine [Yona] was referring to the otaku player. Had he intended to crossplay? Ah, compared to losing against the [Real Appearance], that was losing again, huh?

The otaku called Yona paused, glancing away. "Don't laugh."

"I totally will." The boy Cuvie rebelliously countered.

Yona simply pushed his glasses up, although it didn't hide his severe expression. "Alright." He admitted. "I…" after a dramatic pause, he revealed, "hate cows."

Cuvie blinked. "What?"

Like the boy, she had to keep herself from laughing.

Yona shrugged self-consciously. "I just… they're so big and smelly, and stupid, unless they're mean. I've never met a cow I liked." He shook his head. "I just want to get this floor mapped and cleared as fast as possible and move on."

Cuvie shrugged, and changed the subject back. "Maybe he got dragged off by Diabel-san again."

Yona grunted sourly. "I hope not." He shook his head. "That guy already took Kibaou. I didn't mind so much because he didn't match, but at this rate the guild [Alphabet Soup] will fall apart before it ever gets founded."

Cuvie sighed. "That was just a joke."

But she wasn't really listening anymore. Instead, she turned, and walked off with a heavy feeling. It was like a thick blanket soaked in grease had been dropped on her shoulders.

Yes, it was shame, and guilt.

Because, the one she looked down on as a child, and the one she secretly laughed at as an otaku, those two were [Clearers] who stood on the front line of the game.

Compared to them, who were doing their best, did she have any right to say anything?

Yes. Her mind was made up. If she wanted to become someone who could walk proudly with her head up, she should also try her best.

She turned around. She walked back towards the Gate Portals. However, even if she was simply retracing her steps and returning to the [Starting City], at the same time, it was completely different. Although it was backtracking, it was certainly not retreating. With her eyes up and focused forward, for the first time since she had been trapped in this game, the player named [Griselda] was moving forward.

I I I

With quick and confident steps, she weaved between the Players and the NPCs as she moved down the main east-west road, a boulevard that was ten meters wide with open spots for players to establish item shops.

Like her husband. He was standing with his hands folded talking to a player as she approached. She paused for a step. That player was also young, probably still in high school. Since her husband as a [Player Blacksmith] had a higher skill rating than comparable [NPC Blacksmiths], naturally that meant he could afford to charge higher prices. So the ones that could hire him were the players that focused on leveling up and clearing the game, who accumulated more resources and wealth than anyone.

Was this high schooler, wearing light leather equipment over such a narrow back, also one of those clearers? That guilt at being an adult who relied on teenagers reared up again. Yes, she would become someone these children could rely on instead of someone who relied on them.

Like that, she firmed her resolve and stepped forward.

Her husband glanced sideways, and his eyes happened to go over her, and then snapped back, as he stopped speaking. The teenager he had been talking with turned, following his gaze, tracking her with dark eyes over a ninja mask.

She stepped boldly up and looked her husband in the eye. Without greeting either of them, but smiling with confidence for the first time since the [Death Game] began, she spoke. "Dear," she began, "let's join the [Clearers] and try to beat the game."

Her husband opened his mouth, and closed it, before glancing at his customer, who glanced back at her before casting his eyes down at the ground, softly speaking, "Um, I'll come back later, okay, Grimlock-san?"

Her husband nodded at the player, who retreated from the middle of what he obviously thought was a marital argument. Well, if she was going to be honest, that wasn't an impossible assumption.

He met her gaze, studying her for a moment, before speaking. "I thought we decided to be safe and wait for rescue."

She shook her head in disagreement. "Maybe, but how do you feel letting a boy like that do his best to clear the game while we remain in the [Safe Zone] relying on his protection?"

He sighed. "Rather than relying on Kayaba Akihiko's honestly that we'll be released when someone beats the game, I'd rather rely on the JSDF Cyberterrorism Unit." He shook his head, sighing slightly with a bitter smile as he looked down. "If anything, I'm just trying to keep them from getting themselves killed while doing what's required to support us here."

"That sounds like an excuse." She countered.

His eyes snapped up, and a cold expression she'd never seen before spread across his face. He pressed his lips together, and then breathed out before speaking. "What do you mean?"

She stepped forward, carefully setting her hands on his shoulders. "I know you. I think it's eating you up inside to watch all these people moving forward while you're keeping yourself in place." She smiled at him encouragingly. "But I will always support you, so don't worry, okay?"

He sighed in defeat, seeming to deflate slightly. She could feel the wire-like tension release from his body. "You're a cunning woman, you know that?" He said, with a slightly admiring tone.

She smiled at him, stepping back and crossing her arms behind her back. "Then, let's go."

I I I

"What is this place?" Grimlock asked.

Griselda smiled at him, before waving the materialized item, [Argo Guide], that she held in her hand. It was a simple book the size of a standard light novel, but in the virtual world the size of a book item had absolutely no relationship with its information content.

"According to this," she said, "this isn't a [Shop], but instead, the location of an NPC that offers one of the easiest [Circuit Activation] quests, so we'll start here."

He glanced aside, frowning slightly in opposition. "I don't think it's a good idea."

"Getting cold feet?" She said with a teasing smile. "Don't worry, I'll be right here with you."

"It's not that." He said, shaking his head once. "I mean I don't think it's a good idea to use the [Thaumaturgy] system. We should focus on [Skills] and [Equipment] instead."

She cocked her head to the side, slightly confused. "But it's obvious that it's the most important part of the game. If we don't use it we'll be underpowered."

He grimaced, squinting as he shook his head again. "That's not it, I mean… I have a bad feeling about this. It's something Kayaba put together himself, so I'm worried that it won't have the same protections built in as the rest of the game." He looked her in the eye with a serious expression. "Magecraft is inherently dangerous."

She smiled softly. "You're worrying too much. Let's at least try it out, okay?"

He changed approaches. He pointed at the sign over the door, and said, "At least, doesn't that make you nervous?"

She glanced up. Over a relatively large but plain hardwood panel door set in the side of a building, was that huge sign. It announced that this was the [Museum of Suspicious Furniture] in elaborately carved letters with flourishes and baroque curls in a completely organic frame without any straight lines, a mass of curves following the grain of a twisted tree.

After glancing at the sign, then back at him, then up at the sign, she implied defeat without admitting it. "Let's just go inside." She announced, and without waiting for his response, pushed onward.

Inside, was truly a [Museum of Suspicious Furniture].

The whole first floor was a great warehouse without any internal walls, spreading across the whole of the building without even supporting pillars. However, piled up in every direction like the walls of a maze was furniture of every description and kind. Rather than being organized in rows, there was simply a winding path between the cluttered inventory. In every direction, the line of sight was eventually blocked by something tall, so there was no way to tell what was what. And without any exceptions, every single piece was somehow suspicious.

A drawing-room desk that had legs carved to resemble the cloven hooves of a goat.

A bookshelf that curved outward in every direction as it rose to a height of two-and-a-half meters, so that when you stood in front of it, there was an intimidated feeling like it would tip over and crush you.

An ottoman embroidered with staring eyes.

A lamp curved exactly like a human spine.

An oversized travelling trunk set on tens of little rolling wheels with a motif like a gaping mouth full of teeth along the rim.

A solidly-built canopy bed with a frame like a fortress, but with slender supports holding up a heavy roof that curved downwards like a bowl, giving the impression it would give way and crush whoever slept in it.

A three-legged stool with a seat of rough sharkskin.

A tall and magnificent wing-backed chair with richly stuffed velvet, decorated across the noble rim and marching up the legs to the arms, with pieces of amber. Inside every piece of amber without any exceptions, an insect was trapped.

Wandering back and forth, the path was like a spiral that converged in the center of the room, where a single spindly man sat. He was turned away, with his legs drawn up to his chest, his arms wrapped around his shins, and his head hunched craned forward to rest his chin on his knees.

Finally, it was Griselda who broke the silence. "Hello?" She asked, with a little hesitation.

The man twitched with exaggerated surprise, before jumping off his chair, and pacing over, bird-like, with his hands pressed together. He was dressed in tight, too-short slacks and shirt, with a long waist-coat, and an over-sized bowler hat of impossibly dark material. That hat was crudely embroidered with heavy white thread, reading, [MAGUSS].

"Yes?" He said, blinking his eyes slightly out of synch. In front of him, the menu of an NPC shopkeeper appeared and presented itself to the married couple. However, only the [Sell] command to offload inventory onto the shopkeeper was available. The [Buy] command to purchase things from him was grayed out as a forbidden.

Griselda glanced at Grimlock, who looked back with an expression that didn't help at all, before she turned to glance back at the quest-giver. He maintained eye contact without any movement. She didn't even think he had a breathing animation. Finally she asked, "We would like to open our circuits."

His head jerked back as if struck, and then he shuddered exquisitely, from head to toe. "Are you sure?" He asked, leaning forward. "It is a very dangerous thing you ask, yes, a very dangerous thing indeed."

"Yes, we're sure." Griselda firmly replied.

"So sure, yes, so sure indeed, at the beginning." The NPC said, stepping backwards, bobbing his head, before gesturing around him. "It is just a small thing, yes, but you will end up with a collection like mine, yes, if you walk this path."

"Honey," Grimlock said, "let's just go."

Griselda glanced over, smiling. "Dear," she began, "This is just the ask three times trope, trying to spook us."

"He can't even spell." Grimlock pointed out. "How can we be sure this isn't a dud?"

"Yes, we're sure." Griselda said, choosing to address the NPC rather than her husband.

As she finished speaking, a popup appeared before them.

[Quest Accepted: First Teaching of the Fretworker]

The NPC froze in place again, before abruptly turning. "Very well, very well," the NPC said, nodding as he opened a desk drawer. It squeeled like a frightened child as it opened, and he kept muttering "very well", as he rummaged around.

Finally, with an "aha!" of triumph, he came back with an oblong box, which he opened with a gesture laden with portent. The box was full of old-fashioned oil-pastel markers, laid out in a row, a solid block of paint wrapped in paper like a crayon. He gestured with the box. "Pick, pick." He urged. "Choose the color of your magecraft, yes, choose wisely."

"How do we know which to pick?" Griselda asked.

"It doesn't matter," The NPC said dismissively, "As long as you absolutely convince yourself that it is the correct, the best, the most perfect color of your od, your magic, your soul."

Griselda tapped her lips, before reaching out and picking out a green marker, slightly darker than the ideal forest shade of green. She turned to her husband. "I hope you didn't want that one." She said.

He shook his head, and casually reached out and grabbed a blue crayon with only a brief glance.

"Now draw a circle on the floor." The NPC said, gesturing at the polished hardwood beneath them. "The roundest, most circular circle you possibly can, big enough to sit in."

Griselda rested on one knee, with her foot out behind her and her left palm on the ground in front of her, holding her crayon at a fixed distance by keeping her right arm straight, and slowly rotated on her knee by pushing with her foot and her hand, using her body as a radial compass to trace her circle.

Grimlock crouched, and casually drew his own oilpaint crayon along the ground with a quick and sure motion. He was finished in a fourth of the time it took her.

She got up and intended to scold him for his sloppiness, but instead, she felt something caught between pride and mild envy. Her circle was slightly wobbly, but his was perfect. "I never knew you had a talent for drawing." She praised.

He shrugged. "It was only for a year, but I was in the art club in high school."

Before she could say anything, the NPC interrupted. "Now sit." He commanded, clapping his hands once. "Sit in your circle, legs crossed or underneath you, it doesn't matter, pick the one right for you. Keep your back straight and your breathing even."

She sat formally, in seiza, her legs tucked beneath her.

"Close your eyes." The NPC intoned. His voice had a cadence. It was no longer abrupt at all, instead it proceeded at a steady rhythm, his words going up and down his vocal register in an almost sing-song manner as he spoke. "Breath in, close your eyes, and breath out. Breath in, and imagine your circle, and breath out. Breath in, and imagine your circle, and breath out. Breath in, imagine your circle, and breath out."

The NPC paused. There was no sound of his feet, there was no sound of him moving, but his voice had moved away. "Breath in. Your circle is spinning. You are in place. Breath out. You are not moving, the floor is not moving, the paint is not moving. Breath in. But even so, without anything moving, the circle is turning. Breath out. It is spinning at exactly the right speed. The circle is you. Breath in. The circle is you, your soul, your circuits your circle your circuits are turning, spinning, without moving."

Like that, he kept talking. His words became background noise, a simple encouragement, as she focused, letting herself be hypnotized, letting herself be drawn along.

Something inside her twitched. With a start, her eyes flew open. She stared down. Her arms were raised, her palms were flat, but she didn't remember moving, as she stared down at her body. A shock like she'd touched a bare electric wire before her hand flew away had raced across her whole body.

An announcement popped up in the air before her.

[Bad Luck! Quest Failed.]

But, even so, there was a large reward of XP listed.

"Guh." Her head snapped up, as she heard a pained grunt from Grimlock.

His HP went down, turning yellow as she watched. She jumped up, sprinting over to crouch by his side. "Dear!" She threw her arm over his shoulder. "Are you alright!?"

The HP decline stopped, and he glanced up at her with a shaky smile. "Yes, I was just surprised, that's all."

"No good, no good, no good at all." The NPC interrupted them, and they glanced up as he wagged a finger at them. "It's fine to try your best and fail, but if you hesitate, the things lurking behind you will get you, without any mercy, no, especially not if they're luggage."

Despite themselves, somehow, they both looked over their shoulders at the same time, glancing behind them, at the gap in the piles of furniture that led back, eventually, to the door.

But beside that gap, where it hadn't been before, was that over-sized roller trunk with the paneling like teeth.

"I think it's time to go." Grimlock said with great dignity.

"Yes." Griselda agreed.  
I I I

The second place was an armor shop. It was another one with a heavy door, but rather than a sign or any written indication, it simply had a leather glove hanging from the door, with an iron nail driven through the palm, the fingers curling limply down almost as if they were lightly gripping the head of the nail in place.

The inside was small, a square room with a simple counter.

The man behind the counter was generically young-looking, in his thirties perhaps. However, he had a long burgundy-colored cape draped over his shoulders, a heavy dark shirt with sleeves that came to his finger tips, and immaculate white gloves. His dark olive skin had a sheen like it was waxed and polished, and the dome of his head was completely hairless. Immense eyebrows shaped like claws reached out from above his brooding eyes and curled down past his temples like fishhooks. A goatee waxed to a perfect point hung down half again the length of his face.

This NPC also had the item shop menu, but this time the [Buy] command wasn't grayed out, so her husband pressed it, curious to see what kind of inventory this unlabelled shop stocked.

"The only thing for sale are gloves." Grimlock said, with something like confusion. Cloth armor, leather armor, light metal armor, chainmail, heavy metal armor, even ultra-heavy gauntlets. The [Bigsby Armor Shop] carried armor across the entire spectrum of weight without any gaps, but the only kind of equipment it had available for sale were ones that were equipped on the hands.

"We're here to activate our magic circuits, not shop." She scolded mildly. Then she paused, considering the situation herself. "Although once we have a little more [Col] we might come back if the equipment selection here is good." With a teasing smile, she glanced at her husband.

"Magecraft, you say?" With a voice like gravel in a deep hole, the NPC spoke. "What use have you for magecraft?"

She ignored the NPC, because she had seen something in his face. "Are you going to be okay trying again?" She said.

He stood silently, thinking. With his face still like that she couldn't imagine what was going through his head at all, but she guessed he just needed to think, so she allowed him the space to do so, supporting him silently.

"I know exactly what I did wrong." Grimlock said with quiet conviction. "So I won't make that mistake again." He smiled at her. "You can rely on that."

She hoped that little flutter in her heart when he smiled at her never went away. "Yes." She agreed, smiling back. Then she turned to address the NPC that had stopped in place in a holding pattern for the next response.

"We want to learn how to do magic." She said to the NPC.

"I see." He said, closing his eyes slowly. She accepted the quest popup, and without opening his eyes, the NPC spoke again. "Then, listen, and repeat after me."

He carefully pulled the glove off his right hand, and pressed the pad of his thumb against his middle finger. Then, he snapped his fingers.

Griselda blinked, glancing at her husband, before glancing back at the NPC. Together, they both raised their hands, and snapped their fingers.

"No." The NPC said with a slow shake of his head. "Not just the noise. You gather then tension, and then release it with a snap to flow through you." He held his hand up. "Again." He said.

This time, when he snapped his fingers, he began to do it repeatedly, like the pulse of blood vessels. Somehow, there was something more than sound to what he was doing.

She closed her eyes, matching the timing. The rhythm grew erratic, but somehow her husband was keeping up. She faltered a few times, but it seemed to get louder as it continued, even though it was exactly the same sound each time. But there was a pressure like expectation that built up when she was pressing her fingers together, although it remained a vague and indistinct feeling.

And abruptly, it stopped.

"Congratulations." The NPC said. She opened her eyes, blinking, before following the NPC's gaze to her husband, who was standing with a complicated look on his face.

"Oh?" She asked. "You did it?"

"It seems so." He quietly said.

She nodded, smiling with pride at him. But, since the rhythm was broken, her concentration was ruined and the expectations evaporated like they had never even been.

[Bad Luck! Quest Failed.]

She sighed. "Well, I guess I've just got to try the next one then."

I I I

The third time she had gotten her hopes up, because after a long-winded speech that ancient-looking NPC had simply put the [Activate Circuit] command in her spellbook, but after she failed, it had disappeared again. Well, at least he had some basic [Spell Formulae], and since Grimlock was an [Official Magus] now, that menu had been unlocked. His face had been incredibly sour when he purchased the [Reinforcement] magic, probably because of how expensive it was.

Closing the door on the [Strange Item Shop] behind them, her husband said, almost to himself, "Cardinal has no respect for intellectual property, huh?"

She cocked her head, and he simply shrugged, waving it aside. "No, it's not important." He looked up. "So are you going to give up?" He asked with a carefully neutral voice.

She smiled with grace and patience, and he broke eye contact first. "No," she said, "According to the [Guide] those three are the fastest, so the next one will have a fetchquest."

"Great." He sighed.

I I I

"Why are they all item shops." She wondered aloud, looking at the door in front of them, glancing side-to-side to examine the building generally.

"The second one was technically an armor shop." He mildly pointed out, but that was a fine distinction that only gamers would understand.

She pushed open the door and stepped inside [Ye Olde Chymistry Shoppe].

Inside was an absolute mish-mash of ideas, concepts, and images.

The floor was tiled, but with irregular and worn tiles that had the slightly irregular look of antiquity when tiles were produced by hand, compared to the extremely regular square tiles of the current machine era. Large benches of hewn wood stretched along the three walls of the room facing them, so that only the wall with the windows and doors was bare. The benches were topped with great slabs of marble that had rough edges, but were perfectly flattened on the working surface.

Hanging over those benches were shelves mounted from the wall, also rough lumber, that projected out all the way over the counters.

However, those shelves were filled with tinctures and glassware of the latest, most modern design. Flasks and beakers were marked with perfect measurements along their height. Plastic tubs with screw-on lids and labels that were fully compliant with all proper regulations and procedures held pure substances such as calcium salts and complex organic solvents, labeled with the correct IUPAC nomenclature.

On the shelves were calibrated electronic scales, centrifuges next to racks of identical test tubes in sealed plastic boxes to prevent dust contamination, scaffolding framework to position glass staging over electrical heaters and collection bulbs, and great glass boxes that could be opened or sealed shut to contain fumes and gases.

Rather than fluorescent bulbs or torches, lighting was provided by Bunsen burners scattered all over the tables, petrochemical candles that cast weird shadows sideways across everything from every direction.

In the center of the room was a great open cauldron of copper, the size of a drum, large enough for someone to climb in. Rather than being suspended over a fire, it was held up by six legs welded to the curve of the bottom that were bolted to the floor. Heat was supplied by a steam jacket serviced by insulated pipes that rose up from the floor to provide steam and returned condensate through complex valves back through the floor from when it came.

Standing over the cauldron with its boiling brew was a Witch. Her skin was bright green, and her long hooked nose dominated a face of sharp and angular features. She wore a shapeless black dress that hung to the ground and a great wide-brimmed hat that rose up, bent sideways at right angles, and sweeped to a point. However, the long sleeves of her dress were stuffed into the elastic closures on the wrists of the white lab coat that was hung open over her shoulders. Her hands were in bright blue nitrile gloves and she was wearing large splash goggles strapped over her eyes.

Cackling madly, she poured an exact amount of some strange off-white powder into the cauldron from a weigh boat, and made a careful annotation on her clipboard after glancing at an ancient analog clock hanging from the wall. The color of the bubbling solution quickly changed to bright yellow as some arcane chemical reaction took place from the high-temperature reaction of that powder.

Griselda glanced at her husband, but he was useless.

"Hello." She said, bowing after hesitating, finally deciding to call this one the [Science Witch] even if the [Argo Guide] listed the designated name of this NPC.

"Oh?" With a sneer, the witch swept over with rapid steps, an appearance like floating as she approached them, reaching up to lift the goggles off her eyes and onto her forehead. Her eyes were an intense and unnatural shade of yellow with fierce pupils. "What do the little duckies want, hmm?" She asked.

"I would like to open my circuits." Griselda asked.

The Witch laughed. It was loud, coming out of nowhere at full power, and ended as abruptly as it began. "So sorry, little kittens, but I cannot help you. I have not the reagents to make the potion."

"Where could we get what you need?" Griselda asked.

A wide and sharp smile crossed the face of the [Science Witch] even as the exclamation point of a designated quest-giver appeared over her head. "Go into the woods outside the village of [Horunka] and harvest the [Roots] of the plants that walk outside there. Gathering from seven specimens will suffice."

Griselda bowed slightly, glancing at the holographic popup of the [Quest Log] that appeared in the corner of her vision as the speech ended. "We will return."

"See that you do." With a dismissive sound, the NPC turned her attention away from them and returned to her inscrutable work.

I I I

They partied up with a high-level player who had come back to the first floor to do the [Anneal Blade] quest, despite being someone who used a heavy axe equip. From his perspective they would just speed up the rate at which they took down what he considered a miss, and meanwhile they would receive protection from getting overwhelmed by monsters they couldn't handle. It only took twenty minutes for them to gather the seven [Little Nepent Roots] that they needed, but at the same time, their companion didn't have the [Ovule] he needed, so they stayed behind to help him out until they completed that with no problems.

"It's quite a beautiful sword." Griselda said, after he had finished his own quest and they had returned to the town square. He was holding the [Anneal Blade] that he had received, showing it to her.

"Yes." The player named [Godfree] agreed with a broad grin. His loud and warm personality matched his bear-like physique and the thick hair that spread out around his face like a mane. "It almost makes me want to equip it myself, but I'm proud to be an axe user." Saying that, he put the weapon into his inventory, and sighed with contentment. He leaned back, crossing his arms, contemplating the two people in front of him.

"You know," he said after mulling something over, "I think Diabel-san can wait for his sword a little longer. As thanks I'll help you run the same quest for yourself, what do you say?"

"Thank you." Griselda warmly replied. "But I have no intention of equipping any swords other than the ones made by my husband." She said, glancing over in the direction he'd left to get some food.

It was obvious his first thought was something like 'but the marriage mechanic isn't implemented yet,' but then his face changed into a broad smile. "I see! Well, that's a good sentiment. He's a lucky guy to have you." He brushed his thighs with his hands and stood. "But, in that case, I should hurry back to the [Starting City] before it gets too much later."

"It's already getting dark." Griselda cautioned.

He raised an arm in acknowledgement as he walked off. "I'm leveled enough, so it's not a problem." He cheerfully replied, ambling off with his back to the sunset.

She watched him go idly, sitting down on a bench facing the town square.

Grimlock walked up, glancing around. "Did Godfree-san already leave?"

She nodded. "Yes, he wanted to get back tonight."

He grunted a mild agreement, sitting down beside her on the bench and materializing the [Stuffed Bread] that he'd purchased, handing one to her. They ate, to sate the artificial hunger that the system imposed as a sop to realism.

Softly chewing her bread, she smiled. "Do you remember? This is like our first date."

He paused, swallowing. She knew he was comparing this to the omiai where they had been introduced, and determining it as not what she meant, before figuring it out. "You mean when we ran into each other."

Yes, he had been on a business trip to Tokyo. She thought that he had the same job then as he had now, but she respected his request that she understand it was sensitive work he couldn't discuss. She had been working as an office lady fresh out of high school, handling customer inquiries as a receptionist in the Outside Sales department of a microscope manufacturing company.

Now that she thought about it, she couldn't really say he had that job anymore, not in this scenario, could she?

She turned her attention back to the rose-colored memory. "It felt like fate." She admitted, feeling slightly shy. "It was like something out of a shoujo manga, that I stepped out of the building to get something to eat the day I forgot to bring my bento, and I met you on your way to a meeting." She smiled over at him. "It was just forty minutes with cheap yakisoba in a park by my building, but compared to the stiff and formal introduction, it was over that lunch that I decided I liked you."

He took a bite of bread, before speaking himself. "At the time I thought my mother had called you and it had been arranged in advance because it seemed like too much of a coincidence."

"Do you think someday that we'll look back on all this, and be glad?" She asked, quietly, without taking her eyes off his face.

"I wish you weren't here, in Aincrad." He said, finally. "Even though it would be hard, I would rather we were separated, if it meant that you were safe, outside this place."

Griselda smiled archly. "Considering that I'm the gamer of the two of us, it's more likely that I would be the one trapped here without you then the other way around."

Grimlock nodded seriously. "It's selfish of me. But I wouldn't want to be on the outside if you were in here." He sighed. "But you feel that exact same way, don't you?" He smiled, the tentative, vulnerable way she cherished when he was truly opening himself up to her. "So even if we're just being swept up in the great swirl, if getting swept up is unavoidable, then I'm at least glad we're together." He closed his eyes with a rush of breath. "I'm contradicting myself."

She reached out and held his hand without saying anything, silently supporting him. Finally, when she knew the time was right, she said, "Let's go rent a room at the [Inn] for tonight."

I I I

Late, afterwards, in the middle of the night, Grimlock carefully slipped from the bed, and quietly walked out of the room, and down the hall, into the bathroom. There was a large free-standing bathtub and a basin sink with a mirror over it, but no toilet of any kind. There was no need for toilets in Aincrad; such a feature was physiologically unnecessary for these holographic bodies.

There was no light bulb or candle, but the room was still fully lit by activating a selection on his menu. Grimlock stared into the mirror, examining his own face.

Once, when he had been younger, he had heard that if you looked in the mirror in an unlit room at midnight, and turned around three times, chanting "Biggie Smalls" the whole time, then the ghost of the dead American rapper would appear reflected in the glass.

He activated his Circuits, all of them, every last one. He made no exceptions. Just like before, the parameters were exactly correct. Things that the game couldn't possibly know about were represented with perfect accuracy.

Compared to listening to someone tell that stupid joke, that was like hearing the comedian casually outline the Evocation needed to summon the Wraith those stories were based on just as part of the set-up of the joke. Too many of the details were distressingly accurate.

This wasn't on the level of someone who knew only a little bit ignorantly barking. This was a revelation from someone who knew exactly what he was talking about.

He closed his circuit, breathing out exactly once as he mastered himself.

There were no doubts.

Kayaba Akihiko absolutely had to be stopped. And the one trapped in this [Aincrad] as the player called [Grimlock] would do anything, sacrifice anyone, to achieve that. He had no idea what that guy hoped to accomplish but that was totally irrelevant. All doubts were erased and all reservations were removed.

He deactivated the lights and walked silently through the hall to dark room where his wife lay sleeping. He sat down on the bed beside her, studying her in the shadows. He'd seen her sleeping face before when he'd gotten back late, and he'd seen the same peaceful expression every time she'd had the NerveGear on, as well. He reached out and traced the side of her face with the lightest possible touch, before pulling his hand back.

He pulled back the covers, slid in beside her, and closed his eyes.

From that time forward his sleep was untroubled by nightmares, because he no longer allowed himself to have any dreams.

I I I

She took the glass beaker from the outstretched hand of the [Science Witch].

She smiled up at her husband. "I did it." She said with a feeling of accomplishment. "I'm a [Magus] now."

Her husband reached up, pushing his hat down over his vision to obscure his face like he did when embarrassed, and then stepped forward, hugging her. He wrapped his left arm around her back and his right arm came around up and around to lay his palm against the back of her head. She leaned into him, wrapping her own arms around his waist, and resting her head on his shoulder. Her smile was even wider.

With a quiet voice, he spoke. "You are a [Magic User] now." She was happy that he cared about her accomplishments that much.


	19. 5:2 Kirito, Asuna, and Elements

"You're having ramen for breakfast?"

Hearing the voice of Asuna-sama scolding him like a mother, Kirito contemplated turning to scowl at her with the noodles still hanging from his mouth, but decided to reject that plan because he had no interest in looking like a rebellious child to her. Asuna was definitely the type of girl that would absolutely not surrender the authority of [Big Sister] if he let her seize it.

So instead he swallowed, and with great dignity, twisted on his stool to look at her directly.

She was standing right inside the wide curtain of his [Urbus Noodle Paradise] with a scowl on her face and both hands on her hips.

"It's not ramen." He patiently pointed out. "It's cold udon in a milk broth." Then, with the same high dignity, he twisted back to return to eating his breakfast.

"Udon in… milk?" She asked. It wasn't like she hadn't heard him, but rather that she was suspicious that he was teasing her. He heard the click click of her boot heels as she walked over to sit on the stool next to him.

When he finished swallowing his current mouthful, he answered her question. "Yes." He looked down at the noodles in the opaque white liquid. "Welcome to the [Cow Floor]."

Her scrunched face was slightly disgusted. "Isn't that like completely soggy cereal?"

Frankly he had been more worried about it being bland than mushy, but there was a spicy flavor like nutmeg, so it was actually not too bad, even though it was pretty strange. He nodded to himself, and rather than defend his own choice of breakfast, he decided to go on the attack. So, when he finished his current mouthful, instead he twisted to study her face.

Eventually she broke. "What?" She asked, with a scowl.

At the perfect cue he had been waiting for, Kirito just shook his head and turned back to his food. "I bet you're the kind of girl that has a slice of toast with jam for breakfast, but saying 'oh no I'm late,' you hold it in your mouth and dash out the door and down the road." With a solemn nod as if agreeing with his own words, he turned back to his noodles.

"T-that! I've only done that once or twice!" Asuna countered, although as far as counter-attacks went, it was a critical failure.

Kirito turned to address her seriously. "…You, did you ever crash into a boy, then?" Of course, he had bought time with his noodles, so he was quite proud of how nonchalant he had sounded.

She slammed her palms on the counter, standing up. "Not even once!" She shouted, blushing. "What kind of girl are you taking me for!?"

Kirito paused, turning to face her more seriously. She looked ready to honestly punch him, and that would be a problem since he knew personally that [Martial Arts] were now available. In his imagination there were three dialogue choices on the bottom of the screen. They were Apologize, Tease More, and Change the Subject. Since he wasn't entirely sure what she was so worried about, Option One would expose him to too much risk, Two had a high probability of leading to a fiery Bad End, and Three was just neutral. Of course, letting the timer run out was definitely the worst choice, so he decided.

[Take the Third Option] was a rule Kirito aspired to, after all.

"Can I ask the reason you're visiting me?" He asked. Something like 'can I ask the reason you're interrupting my breakfast' was too confrontational. Getting back on the track that had led her here before getting distracted was the most reliable path.

"Hmph." She crossed her arms and looked away. "I was going to invite you to party with me and run some [Magic Quests], but now I'm regretting that intention."

He cross-referenced that statement with what he knew about where the average [Front-Line Player] was in the game, and then responded. "If it's the [Identify your Elements] quest series," he said, "then I ran it yesterday." He couldn't help but scowl as he remembered the results of that experience. Truly, that was the kind of thing that could irreparably harm the self-esteem of a delicate teenaged boy.

When he shook that off and looked up, he had a feeling that his words had irreparably harmed the self-esteem of a delicate teenaged girl, so before she could retort, he pushed his noodles away and followed up according to his instinct as fast as possible.

"So, the best I can do is escort you while you do it." He nodded conclusively.

She was intensely studying his face. His perception check to figure out what she was looking for wasn't enough to beat the difficulty of her own inscrutable look, but apparently hers succeed in finding whatever she was looking for.

"That was a pretty mediocre apology, Kirito-kun." The princess finally concluded, "But I will accept it regardless."

Imagining King Bowser losing to ruthless rapid-fire [Linears] while Mario stood gripping his Anneal Blade impotently, Kirito was proud that his face didn't even twitch. Of course he also shielded his face from her view by standing up. As a bonus, that way she was no longer looming down over him.

"Well," he said, putting his hands in his pockets, "Let's go then."

Naturally, she took the lead, whipping the hood of her long cloak back over her head and regally walking to the exit. He sighed, and his shoulders slumped, but he was careful to keep his sound effect from being loud enough to reach her. Then, he chased after her.

He fell into step beside her as they walked towards the center of town. Although they had gotten off to an awkward start, by that point they had a companionable and comfortable atmosphere.

Asuna reached before her, navigating a menu Kirito couldn't see and materializing an item, a copy of [Argo's Guidebook]. Rather than consulting it to decide on her plan, it was more like she was checking the page to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. "According to the [Guide] the [Elements Quest] relies on personal intuition less than the [Circuit Activation Quest], so the compatibility between the [Player] and the [Quest] doesn't matter as much."

"That bothered me." Kirito freely admitted.

"Oh?" Asuna said, glancing at him in surprised. "Why?"

Kirito shrugged, but crossed his arms as he considered the question seriously. Finally, he decided how to answer. "Because it wasn't game-like at all." He finally concluded. "Even during the Beta when they were working bugs out, [Sword Art Online] was extremely well-balanced. It wasn't necessary to tweak the rules, only identify hiccups when the procedural generation engine created an impassable zone that made a quest impossible, for example." Kirito nodded in agreement with himself. "Compared to that excellent balance, the [Magic Quests] are too strange. The gaming parts like fetch quests or Fedex quests are more like half-hearted afterthoughts, but at the same time, they require a huge amount of concentration and mental effort." Kirito shook his head. "They feel like a tutorial tree, but they're completely focused on self-hypnosis rather than anything to do with the game."

Asuna considered that for a long time, before finally she ventured her own opinion. "After you say that, it makes me worried about what the game is supposed to do to our heads."

Kirito nodded seriously. "Yes. I thought I understood Kayaba Akihiko at least a little bit, but after the [Thaumaturgy Patch], everything has been just too strange, so I don't have any idea what he's thinking at all."

Asuna responded with a strange voice after a pause. "Wouldn't you have felt that way immediately from the [Offical Launch] rather than after it?"

Kirito had to mull that over a long time, before he had to admit defeat. "No, I can't explain it." He continued on with a complicated smile. "But at least up to the part where he trapped everyone in the game, I thought I could understand that much even if it was appalling."

This time, it was Asuna who graciously changed the subject to let a complicated misunderstanding rest. "Well regarding today's plan, I had good luck with [Ancient Harry] last time, so we'll start from there, with [Bigsby] as my plan B." She sniffed. "Since you're just a hangers-on, there's no reason for you to object, right?"

There was a reason for Kirito to object. "Asuna," he began, "that [Guidebook], is it perhaps one that is a week or older?"

She confirmed the publication date. "Six days." She said, with a suspicious voice.

Kirito nodded with a smug expression. "You see," he explained, "The [Argo Guidbook] is like fish, if it's a week old it starts to stink and you need to replace it." He paused when something occurred to him. "Of course, that's proof of how industrious Argo is that they go obsolete so quickly, rather than a criticism." He nodded. With someone as astute as Argo, it was an extremely bad idea to say anything that could be construed as negative gossip about her. She was an extremely prideful girl.

He blinked, and turned to look at Asuna, who had stopped in place to stare at him with a worried expression. "You… you don't actually let fish set around for a week before cooking them, right?" Her objection was something Kirito didn't expect at all, so he could only stare while flat-footed as she continued. "I mean, with crab or smoked fish you could do it, but otherwise you should use a fish inside 36 hours. Really, didn't you ever learn that it's important to take the use-by date of perishable food as a serious matter?"

Like that, Kirito could only stare as she criticized his food-handling skills. "Well, a young man like myself is still mostly reliant on his mother for cooking, so anything harder than omelets requires a backup plan about half the time." He mounted a weak defense.

"Men." She huffed. "You shouldn't be proud of being useless, you know." She wagged her finger. "This is the twenty-first century, it's no longer acceptable to rely on your girlfriend to do all the cooking."

It was time to change the subject again. "Putting aside my poorly chosen analogy for now, my point was that the [Argo's Guidebook] you have is obsolete and there is a faster way."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Kirito nodded. "Right." He glanced around, checking their position in the city. "There's a player item shop in this town we can use, so let's go there." He set off with confident steps.

This time it was Asuna who followed along with him. "But how can a Player provide a quest that only the NPCs can grant?"

"Because this player bought the potion recipe from the [Science Witch], and then he turned around and farmed the materials, and conveniently sells them here on the Second Floor." Kirito replied.

Asuna frowned. "Yes, but how? I mean, are the language interfaces of those NPCs even smart enough to understand the question?" Kirito had already witnessed at least three frustrating conversations where Asuna failed to get instructions from NPCs. "And is [Potion Making] even a skill? I don't remember it from the [Guidebook] at all."

"I don't know." Kirito said.

Asuna was doubtful. "That doesn't sound like you at all, Kirito-kun. You are as curious as a cat."

Kirito grunted, and then replied with a sheepish voice, "Before I could ask, my first instinct was to complain about the price." He sighed. "I agreed that 500 Col was an appropriate estimate for daily expenses like food, lodging, and equipment upkeep, and I could accept that farming the mats, using the skill, and handling takes three hours for a set even if that sounds high to me, but that makes the price 167 Col." Kirito shook his head. "So if the price is 250 Col, than that means it's a third markup."

Asuna raised an eyebrow. "That much money, at your level, isn't 83 Col a trivial amount you could earn as a side effect of grinding for XP?"

Kirito sighed. "Yes, but the instincts of a zero-income student like myself are very strong, so even when I'm super-rich inside the game, I find myself always haggling on price."

Asuna smiled mischievously as they rounded a corner onto one of the main boulevards leading to the Gate Plaza. "Isn't it said that the value of money is in the spending of it?"

Kirito rolled his eyes. "You're quite the oujo-sama character, aren't you? You should wear your hair in twin-tails." Then he paused when he realized something important, turning to examine Asuna's head carefully, glancing under her hood.

Asuna, rather unbalanced, stepped back. "What… is there something on my face?"

"No." Kirito said. "I take it back, your hair is already perfect for an ojou-sama." He nodded conclusively. "From now on, you are Asuna-ojou-sama. In my heart, that is."

"Kirito-kun." She responded. "If you tease me like that, I will get angry."

"Yes, ojou-sama. So sorry, ojou-sama." He replied.

"Kirito."

"Hai hai, Asuna-san." He completely surrendered. He sighed, slouching over, before gathering himself back together and looking around. "Well, we're close, so it's good timing anyway."

"Thank you, Kirito-kun." Asuna said, with a warmth that was completely at odds with her previous chilling tone. He didn't even have any idea what she was thanking him for.

Kirito sighed again.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you that sighs drive happiness away?"

Kirito looked up, and smiled a half-hearted greeting at the man who had spoken up as they approached. "Agil-san." He replied. "Business is good, I see."

Since there were absolutely no other customers around, Agil just narrowed his eyes at Kirito's barb. "You're not getting a refund."

"Don't insult me." Kirito testily replied. "I'm not someone that goes back on a trade that we already shook on." Then he added something like it had just occurred to him. "But, since I'm already bringing the customers you desperately need to you, then you should be paying me a finder's fee."

"Hey." Agil replied with a scowl. "It's still early in the morning, it won't pick up until nine at the earliest." With that, he dismissed Kirito and turned to the figure beside him. "But, he did say something interesting. Welcome to Agil's Item Shop, where the motto is buy cheap and sell cheap."

Asuna bowed. "Thank you."

Agil nodded to himself. "You… are that rapier-user that was partied with Kirito during the fight against Illfang, aren't you?"

Asuna bowed again. "Ah, yes. I recognize you from the meeting before, as well."

Agil leaned forward, placing his hands on the table. "Well, in that case I'll be proud to consider you a customer. What are you looking to buy today?"

Asuna glanced at Kirito, and even though she still had the hood up, he could tell he was blaming her for not telling her the name already.

"She's here for an Element Paddle." Kirito explained.

Agil nodded, and then asked, "East or West?"

Kirito glanced at Asuna. "This is time for you to gamble a coin toss. If you guess wrong, you'll have to pay double to get the other set, as well." After seeing her response, though, he quickly backed up to explain. "The way it works is, you either have from the set of the Five Chinese Elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water, or the Five European Elements of Air, Water, Fire, Earth, and Ether." Asuna nodded, so Kirito considered. "For these potions, even if you're someone with European Fire it won't respond to Chinese Fire, so if you get nothing you know that you chose the wrong set."

"That's a little incomplete." Agil butted in. "Supposedly there are people who have something unique that's not from either kind of Elements." He flicked his finger at Kirito. "So if you guess wrong like a certain someone did, then you have to pay twice to make it happen."

"East or West, which do you think?" Asuna asked, turning to Kirito.

Kirito shrugged. "I picked East to begin with, because we're in Japan, but like Agil said, that turned out to be wrong."

Asuna nodded. "Then, I'll start with the West set."

Agil nodded, flicking open a menu, and a [Trade] window appeared with the [West Element Paddle] in the [Agil] column of the window. While Agil was opening his mouth, Asuna had already entered 250 Col into the [Asuna] column of the window.

Agil closed his mouth and glanced suspiciously at Kirito. "So you're the kind of guy who gives the price without ever even mentioning the item name, huh?"

Kirito had a really good reply, but before he could use it, Asuna interrupted their banter. "Agil-san, Kirito-san. Isn't this a really suspicious thing to be giving a girl?"

Materialized in front of her, was a long wooden tray, with five circular depressions carved in it. In each depression, there was a glass full of beer, each one of the five a completely different color.

Kirito had an expression like that hadn't even occurred to him, and then he snapped his fingers. "Ah, you don't know." Like that, he said something that didn't help at all, but he went on to explain. "You see, all alcoholic items perform a check against the Player's age in their user registration, so if you're under 20 it's automatically converted to the alcohol-free version."

"It's still suspicious." Asuna objected.

Agil spoke up defensively. "The [Spell Recipe] requires the reagents and a food-preparation skill, and the only one I have access to is [Brewing], so they turned out like this as a side effect." He shook his head. "It might be possible with [Cooking] but that skill was designed as a long-term puzzle minigame so accidentally making them taste horrible is practically inescapable this early in the game."

"Suspicious…" Asuna repeated.

Agil sighed. "Just open your Circuit and drink them. Each one is attuned to a different element, so you should feel a reaction." He held up a hand. "And before you ask, the reactions are all really different, from dizziness to giddiness to warmth, but I can say you'll definitely know if you react, and if you don't react, that will also be obvious."

Asuna glanced back and forth at the two of them, before she slumped slightly, reaching some kind of conclusion, and then standing up straight, staring at the platter of holographic beers in front of her. She breathed in and out in a meditative manner, her eyelids fluttering as she opened her Circuit.

She grabbed the red ale on the leftmost platter, gulping it down with a distasteful expression on her face, gasping as she set the glass down. She clenched her hands into fists, a look of intense concentration crossing her face. "That one… that one was fire, wasn't it?"

Agil nodded.

Second was an extremely dark and thick porter. "Earth." Asuna was more confident, rather than guessing this time.

Third was a straw-colored lager with a thin head. "Water." Asuna announced.

Fourth was a light red with a thick head. Asuna grimaced, and Kirito could sympathize. In addition to the weird smell, it was also the most bitter. "Air." She decided.

Last was extremely pale and thin, bright yellow in color. When Asuna drank it, she blinked. Compared to the other four, Kirito knew it was almost flavorless, but rather than that, Asuna just shook her head. "I can guess it's Ether by elimination, but I didn't have any reaction at all."

"Ho." Agil said, smiling. "Congratulations, four is quite good. And if you had to reject one, it's only appropriate that you rejected the Coors Light of elements, Ether."

"Hey." Kirito said, feeling extremely defensive. "There's nothing wrong with Ether at all. It's a proud and noble element. If it wasn't for ether carrying around light vibrations you wouldn't be able to see, so there."

"Luminiferous Ether was disproven in 1890 or so, Kirito-kun." Asuna interjected. She sighed. "So I guess that means that you can use Ether, then?"

"Ether," Agil said, "and only Ether."

Kirito crossed his arms. "You make that sound like a bad thing." Honestly, he had been disappointed himself. Ether was something like the element that modified other elements, so he would have been perfectly happy if it was one of two, just as long as he could use one of the others as well. For example, using Ether to increase the effectiveness of a Fireblast, or to sharpen a Wind Cut, or something like that. But, with just Ether, he was most worried that his effectiveness would be limited by the low flexibility of only having one element. So, if he was mostly worried about not being able to keep up at later levels, compared to that getting teased was adding insult to injury.

"I'm sure you do just fine." Asuna said. Kirito paused when she said that. It wasn't an empty reassurance or a something she was saying by rote. Looking into her eyes, he couldn't help but smile, because she said it with absolute sincerity and conviction. She completely believed that he would be just fine with only Ether.

He grinned. "Well, with the two of us, that's a complete set, right?"

Asuna nodded. "That's right, so if you fail, you just have to rely on me to save you, Kirito-kun."

Those words completely undermined the warm sensation in his belly. "Hey," Kirito complained, "that makes it sound like you're already giving up on me."

Asuna deflected that. "How about you, Agil-san?" she asked. "What elements can you use."

"I," Agil announced while puffing up with pride, "am an [Average One]."

Asuna hesitated. Kirito remembered when they had walked into the strategy meeting, and she had understood his explanation of how gamers raced against each other by comparing it to the feeling of scoring in the top percentile of a test. Kirito was sure she was thinking about that kind of thing while trying to decide how to react. "Congratulations?" She asked as a conclusion.

Agil deflated slightly. "You guys… [Average One] is the term for someone who can use all five elements, you know. They're right in the middle of them, so that's where [Average] comes from."

"But what this guy is leaving out is that he has exactly one [Circuit] to use all those elements with." Kirito interjected, avenging himself with a critical hit to a man's pride.

"How do you know that?" Agil demanded, before backtracking. "I mean, of course not, don't be silly."

"She didn't ask for hush money, so I have no regrets that I went to Argo for slanderous gossip I could use against you." Kirito honestly admitted. He smiled openly, enjoying the sour expression on Agil's face.

"You," Agil asked, "Is that how you handle your friends?"

Kirito nodded. "I'm the kind of guy that waits for the perfect moment to steal the [Last Attack]." Kirito bragged, even though it wasn't really something to brag about.

Asuna shook her head, and made an exasperated sound. "Kirito-kun… that's so uncool."

Once again, Asuna's piercing attack got through all his defenses and caused personality damage. "Yeah, yeah." He muttered, cravenly retreating. "Let's just go, okay?"

"Thanks for your patronage." Agil said, waving as they turned to walk off.

They were halfway across the plaza when Asuna stopped in place.

Kirito turned, glancing at her. "What's wrong?"

Asuna frowned at him. "You…" she began, with an accusation. "I just realized, that I didn't receive the [Basic Spells] that I would have gotten from the NPC quests."

Kirito waved that off. "Oh, if it's them it's no problem, I'll give them to you." The spells provided by NPCs could be traded among players just like a good simply by using a dropdown selection in the trade window. Actually, since you didn't lose it when you gave it to someone else, it was more like it could be copied to other players rather than traded. Kirito paused, glancing at Asuna in consideration. "But… it's not like I can teach you how to use elements I can't use, so I can only recite the same directions that you would get from the NPCs."

"Those are already copied into the [Guide], so I don't need that at all." Asuna said, cutting down his kindness completely. "However," she continued, "I'm not someone that takes advantage of her friends, so the price for those spells, how much is it?"

Kirito considered that. "Well, like you pointed out so eloquently earlier, it's not like I should be worrying about Col, so how does something like [Asuna will owe me a favor] sound?" It was true that he wanted to just say something like 'don't worry about it', but he didn't want to offend her pride. So, if she was going to act like she wouldn't accept help from a friend, he would just put it into the favor mechanic.

"Kirito." Asuna spoke with a flat voice. "When you say [Favor], what kind of thing are you thinking about exactly?"

Kirito blinked at her. "Well, something like, if you learn an interesting spell I don't know, you'll teach it to me as payback?" He didn't understand what she was so on guard about.

Asuna nodded after a pause. "I see. That's perfectly acceptable, so we'll begin the lesson now."

"Right now?" Kirito asked. It wasn't like he had any particular plans, but he did have a checklist of things he wanted to do.

"That's right." Asuna nodded. "Getting stronger is the most important thing, so we should focus on learning new skills before anything else."

"Well," Kirito relented, "that's a very nice-sounding line, so I think we can move to a field and try some things out."

"Thank you for your cooperation, Kirito-kun." Asuna said. "However, if you patronize people like that you'll never become popular."

"Guh." Kirito said, as the fierce linear once again jabbed him. "Let's, let's just go, okay?" He pointed. "We're on the South side of town already, so why don't we head out the south gate? There's open grassland and a lake that way, so there's options for everything."

Asuna nodded. "Then, let's go." She set off at a march, and Kirito ambled after her.


	20. 5:3 Vs 2F Boss

Asuna looked around, glancing back and forth through the crowd that had assembled. Unlike the First Floor, which had a long hallway in front of the [Floor Dungeon] that had to be cleared of random mobs before the [Boss Fight] could begin, there was a convenient [Safe Zone Room] tucked into the hall adjacent to the Boss Room. Kirito made it sound like this was a typical feature, to allow a party to regroup and check their equipment.

Everyone that had received Diabel's message had made their way to this room at the appointed time for the sake of the first challenge attempt on the [Boss]. So, she was looking around the meeting room. She had already met up with Ilya, but there was someone else missing.

"Ilya-chan." Asuna murmured. "Is Shirou-san late?"

Ilya shook her head. "No, he's not coming." She spoke with a slightly distracted voice.

Asuna blinked. "Excuse me?" She asked, surprised.

Ilya glanced over at her party member. "He estimated that he would be able to save more lives with his regular [Sixth Ranger] activities, rather than participating in the [Boss Fight.]" She said it without any emotion, but it was more like she wasn't allowing it to bother her rather than it being something that didn't really bother her.

"I see." Asuna said. In truth, it was a little surprising. The fear of getting left behind… it seemed like Shirou didn't feel that at all. Well, considering his performance against Illfang, that was probably extremely rational.

"Yo." Kirito greeted the party leader flippantly as he jogged up, trading nods with Asuna. "I found the rest of the party that Diabel assigned to us."

Asuna really wished he'd put that differently, even if it was true.

"You." Of the three players following Kirito, the one standing at the apex of the triangle was a fat guy with a plaid headband and square glasses. He was pushing his glasses up on his face as he addressed the party leader.

"Yes?" Ilya asked, staring up at him without being intimidated at all when he challenged her.

The fat guy finally whipped his hand up, flashing a huge thumbs up and smiling broadly. "If it's Ilya-chan as the Party Leader than I have absolutely no problems at all!"

Asuna heard Kirito's stunned "uwa" even as the sullen-faced thirteen-year-old boy and skinny man flanking the fat guy both winced, looking off to their sides with embarrassed expressions.

However, Ilya reacted without any hesitation. "Kya ha ha ha!" She laughed. With one hand on her hip and the back of the other hand in front of her face, her affected and unnatural laugher somehow made her Queen act even more impressive. "If you're willing to bow to me then I already like you!"

"Ilya-chaaan!" The fat guy gushed, wiggling back and forth in place.

"A gamer with [Weird Proclivities] appeared." Kirito muttered. He sighed, drooping in place. "At first I was disappointed that Shirou skipped, but I think it might have been for the best after all."

"Yona, come on." His teenaged companion moaned, grabbing him with his left hand while his right arm kept the spear slung over his shoulder balanced. "You're embarrassing me."

With an angry expression, the fat guy turned in place. "That's because you don't know the first thing about moe you, you 3D bastard!"

His companion opted to stop shaking his shoulder and instead, kicked him in the shin. "Who are you calling a 3D bastard you loli bastard!" He twisted in place, scowling at their third companion. "And don't just stand around like this doesn't involve you!" He snarled.

"Shut up, you!" The fat guy said, although his counter-attack failed because the teenager was wearing light metal armor, which included grieves on his shins.

With immense gravity, the third member of their party stared down at their squabbling. Finally, without shifting his grip on the staff in his hand, he replied. "I'm a doctor, not a babysitter."

Asuna deigned to also ignore their stupid fight, glancing at the updated [Heads Up Display] in the corner of her vision. When Ilya had accepted these three into the party, the display had updated. Their HP bars were completely full of course, but what was unexpected was the unpronounceable mess of letters they all had for names.

[AAAA]  
[QV]  
[LHMC]

Asuna had no idea what the first two meant, if anything, but she had a pretty good guess for the fourth. "You…" she said, and the self-proclaimed doctor with the staff turned to face her. "You're the one named [LHMC], right? And you play a healer?" The player slowly nodded. "Then, does it perhaps stand for Leonard Horatio McCoy?"

There was a pause as he stood motionless, before he spoke. "Yes." He bowed slightly. "I'm going to guess that you're Asuna-kun, right?" He nodded in satisfaction when she assented. "Then, we should be friends as people with the same hobby."

"Hey." Kirito whispered. "What is he talking about?"

Asuna sighed, shaking her head. "You should really read more scifi, Kirito-kun." She shook her head. "So, I don't think that I understand how to address the other two, though, although you probably use [Bones] in conversation."

Kirito hummed, while the healer nodded respectfully to congratulate Asuna's accurate guess. "Yona is from Yon A, right?" Finally, the black swordsman provided his own hypothesis, that [AAAA] was instead called with the word for the number "four" and the letter "a" turned into a word instead.

"That is correct." The tall and skinny healer called Bones nodded. "It was already decided before I met those two, so I don't know how it got from [Four A] to [Yona]." He gestured at the last figure, the teenager that was now kneeling formally next to the fat man while Ilya lectured them both. Asuna had no idea how that had happened at all. "And last, is the player [QV], which is just pronounced [Cuvie]. As far as he's said the name was a whim without any meaning."

Kirito nodded, although Asuna didn't quite understand why Kirito was most impressed by the last one.

Glancing at her clock, however, Asuna felt a little frustrated. It was almost time for the battle to start and they were squabbling like children. "Ilya-kun, Yona-kun, and Cuvie-kun." She announced, calling their attention. She smiled down at them like a frustrated kindergarten teacher who was using the last of her patience to hold herself back from doing something she couldn't retract. "It's time to get ready, so we need to have a serious meeting, okay?"

It was Cuvie who spoke first, reacting as if by instinct. "Hai! Sensei!" He said, shooting upright to stand at attention. While she appreciated his honestly compared to Yona's grumbling, which she easily suppressed with a much fiercer glare than his, she had complicated feelings about getting treated like that by someone barely younger than her.

Ilya was completely unrepentant, however. "Right!" She said, crossing her arms, drawing their attention back to her. "Just over 90 people have signed up for today, so the strategy is based off of the same White Raid and Red Raid division we had last time. I'm leading the Red Raid and Diabel is leading the White." With a scowl, she paused like she had to swallow something sour before continuing. "Well, Diabel is going to explain the main strategy, but for now, you guys reviewed the [Argo's Guide] on what the scouting fights have learned, right?"

They all nodded.

The scouting expeditions… small parties that engaged the [Floor Boss] just to retrieve battle data while maintaining a clear line of retreat as their main priority. The result of their efforts was a summary that contained the data known about the boss.

Like Illfang the Kobold Lord, this boss also had follower adds that escorted it. But, rather than four that appeared in cohorts of three, there were a total of six present from the beginning. The scouting expedition had killed one, but rather than disappear, it had slumped to the ground as a corpse object. That was around the time they had decided to retreat. The tentative conclusion was that the corpse was a trap with an unknown trigger that spawned a new monster. That would bring the total to twelve escort monsters, just like the first floor.

Those adds were called the [Attendant Taurus]. Compared to the muscular and tall minotaurs that wandered the plains, they were described as sickly, scrawny, and pale, wielding axes and wearing medium metal armor. However, they had the same high strength and HP that the healthy-looking ones did, so that wasn't a reliable indicator at all.

And the boss of the second floor… [Ore Rocks the Stone Bull].

Just like the name suggested, a vast bull that was three meters tall at the shoulder, that was completely covered by armor plates made of stone. Confusingly, despite his high damage reduction from hardness and immense strength, the boss had only one HP bar. He attacked by stamping and goring, and his attack pattern was to just lunge towards the enemy with the highest Aggro, ignoring all other players. His normal attack magnificently pressured the tanks of the front line.

His special attack had been triggered once by the scouting party, and instantly forced them to retreat. When a sufficient threshold of players lined up with him was reached, the boss would stop whatever he was doing and use a charge attack that crossed the room following that line at high speed, tramping everything in front of him.

Of course, experiencing that once explained the odd behavior of the [Attendant Taurus]. Because, rather than pressuring their opponents, instead they attempted to herd and draw players into a straight line.

While Asuna saw that everyone had properly done their homework, her attention was dragged away. Because, the [Rune Knight] that had called the meeting, chose that time to begin his announcement.

"Everyone!" He called, standing on some kind of platform, probably a box-type item that was being used as a temporary podium. Asuna could see that Itagaki and her two party members were standing at his left side, while that orange-haired player named Kibaou was standing with his arms crossed at Diabel's right side. But, that was something she noticed when she deliberately pulled her attention away from the Leader to look around him. Everyone's gaze was locked on to him, and it was like a magnetic force that dragged her own attention to him as well.

"Thank you!" Diabel shouted. "That we moved forward to this battle so quickly, with so many new comrades, is already something I'm proud to be a part of!"

Someone cheered, and Asuna found herself clapping along as an applause rose up, people smiling at each other.

When the shouting died down, Diabel continued to speak with a broad smile on his face. "So let's continue to do our best!" He began. "As you should all know, the important trick in this fight is to keep it as spread out as possible so that the Boss can't use his special attack. I know it will be hard, but the most important thing is to remain calm and keep track of where you are standing compared to the group!" He gestured in the air with his arms. "Just like last time, we are dividing into two Raid Groups. The tactics for the White Raid is to split up into six groups, one for each of the adds. Naturally two of them will have two parties on them, so the priority for the other four will be to defeat theirs and join up with another one party group. Don't stack three to an add, however, because the density of players will get too high. Instead, if you're extra, circle out around the boss to minimize the chance of lining up enough players. Party leaders, please keep some attention on your maps."

He pointed at Ilya. "At the same time, the Red Raid will concentrate on damaging the Boss. Like last time, surround it and focus on driving down its DPS by switching its Aggro. Keep your situational awareness up and maintain the perimeter around the boss."

Diabel nodded. "Finally… I hope it doesn't come to this, but in the event of a retreat, instead I will send a [PM All] that will tell you to [Circle Up], and then to [Retreat] after that. What this means is that you should retreat, not towards the door, but to the closest wall, and perform a fighting retreat from the wall to the door. The purpose of doing so is to prevent us from lining up in front of the door and eating a charge attack from behind."

Diabel paused, looking at across the audience, before nodding. "So, if there are any questions, please let me hear them now!"

"What should a White Party do if they need to retreat from an engagement?" Someone shouted.

"PM me." Diabel replied. "I'll dispatch an extra Party from one of the other Adds to replace you, so please keep track of your HP and give your comrades enough warning so it isn't too urgent."

A girl with a spiked helmet asked the next question. "How will a Red Party know when to switch from defense to offense?"

Diabel gestured. "Red Commander Ilya, would you like to field that?"

Ilya dragged Yona down to a crouch by the shoulder so she could stand on his thigh to address the crowd, while she nodded at the [Rune Knight]. "Certainly, White Commander Diabel." She turned to face the girl who had asked the question. "If the boss is faced away from you, attack with all your guts. If he's facing towards you, focus on defense, and if you're looking at his flank, play halfway between offense and defense. It's most important to wear down his HP without getting distracted, so keeping it simple is the priority of the Red Raid."

"Right!" Diabel shouted. "Any more questions." There were none.

"Then, everyone." Diabel said, with a more reverent tone. "I want to finish by saying that I'm proud to be standing with so many brave people, but remember that we are the symbol of hope for all the other players supporting us! So! Without even one casualty, let's win!"

With a roar, the [2nd Floor Boss Raid] began.

I I I

According to what Kirito had told her, there were two basic spells that existed as the foundation of all Elemental Magecraft. With names like something out of a novel about psychics, those were:

[Telekinesis], the physical manipulation of the Element by resonating it with your prana waves. This was the act of pushing wind or stirring water, or shaping earth into mounds and valleys.

[Psychocreation], the conversion of prana into the Element to create raw materials. Blasts of fire from a gesture or materializing a clump of clay in your hand were examples.

Because her skill with them was still immature, she could only slowly manipulate a small amount of pure material. For example, by concentrating, she could raise or lower divots in the ground at the same pace as shoveling them with a hand spade, or she could condense a liter of water in a pitcher, without any salts or ions dissolved in it to change its nature from [Pure Water].

Although interesting and fun, none of what she could accomplish was of any immediate use, so after thinking about it, she copied what someone else had done.

Against Illfang… at that time, she had been amazed to see that Shirou had launched himself like a missile and fought like an explosion. She could never be so reckless as to use up her prana as quickly as that, but seeing him streak across the battlefield like a comet was something she wanted for herself.

So she simplified it to the absolute basics, and then weaponized it.

"Kirito! Switch!"

"Right!" Her partner shouted, ducking away with a twist to clear a path.

She imagined the effect, and then released it.

She lunged forward with a long step, forcing her glowing sword forward in a perfectly straight line that moved at the speed of sight. Her iron blade pierced into the gravelly hide of [Ore Rocks] and a jet of flame exploded inside the wound, launching her back with the recoil. Gracefully she twisted, allowing the blast to launch her clear of the enemy.

Gather up prana in her sword like an incomplete reinforcement, using the blade as a vessel that filled up during the same tension of the [Sword Art] cocking back in her mind, and then converting the stored mass of prana into the element with [Psychocreation] using the end of the [Skill] as the trigger for the [Spell].

"Switch!" She shouted, and Kirito stepped around, hitting the boss with a long horizontal slash, twirled one retreating step, and then slashed on a downwards diagonal again.

It compensated for her slowness at using the spell by gathering it up and pushed all the side effects onto the blade rather than her body. Right now, it was stabbing the enemy with the base of a rocket and then launching it. The beam wasn't tight and the damage dissipated too freely from the tip, and the high rate of durability loss was even more proof of her control. The amount of prana gathered each time was inconsistent. Using it with Earth or Water would nearly dislocate her shoulder and she still couldn't keep her balance after using Air, so right now only Fire was reliable.

"Switch!" Kirito shouted.

But Asuna's first Unique Spell, the [Linear Burst], even so crude, even so raw, even so unrefined, was still a dramatic increase in her damage potential.

Once again, she took the stance, aimed the sword, loaded the prana, fired the skill, pierced the armor, and detonated the spell. She whipped back, pulling the sword to her hip as she skipped two steps away, leaving a smoking crater where her sword had entered the enemy.

"Asuna!" Ilya shouted. "You've got aggro!"

"Right!" Asuna shouted, stepping back into a guard stance.

With a throaty roar, the tremendous monster, [Ore Rocks the Stone Bull], pressed down on her like an avalanche.

She desperately stepped back, once, twice, eyes wide as she brutally parried a horn as large as her leg that tried to pierce her stomach. Was this how [Tanks] fought all the time? The overwhelming size and pressure of the boss was like fighting a boulder crashing down on you.

The bull roared, and raised a great hoof. Off-balance from the horn, she could only put her sword up in a feeble attempt to block the foot that came down like a jagged cinderblock.

A black sword with a multicolor hue and a vast longsword of burnished metal joined hers, and the three blades made a tremendous clang.

"Gah!" Kirito grunted, straining to hold back the hoof that the Boss tried to simply squish them with, even as Ilya screwed up her face, adding her own strength to the struggle, Asuna bent nearly double as she pushed up from her shoulder using her whole body like a wound up spring.

"I've got Aggro!" someone shouted, dimly heard from the far side of the battle.

Asuna shakily jumped back, flanked by Kirito, as the [Ore Rocks] turned, whipping around to attack its new prey.

"You alright?" Kirito asked, without taking his eyes from the enemy, reaching behind himself with his free hand towards Asuna.

"Yes, in a moment." She said, out of breath. She checked her stamina gauge, which was filling up from the nearly empty position it had had while they were fighting the boss.

"Then let's go!" Ilya shouted, stepping forward and launching a blood-red horizontal sword skill into the flank of the boss.

I I I

"This doesn't feel right." Kibaou complained.

While they watched, the Boss was slowly approaching the halfway point of its HP bar, where it would cross into the Yellow Zone. Compared to that, the White Raid was actually behind. The two Adds that had been double-teamed had fallen, but the other four were still almost fully green. Not only had they taken less damage from the lower number of attackers, but they also seemed to be more focused on lining players up rather than fighting. Compared to them, the first two had been more aggressive about attacking, which actually made them easier to draw off.

Maybe he had it backwards, and their behavior had changed in response to the Adds going down by two.

Well, the result was that Kibaou was spending a lot of time standing around circling an Add making sure there weren't too many people between him and the Boss, rather than engaging the enemy and grabbing the win.

"It can't be helped." The boy standing next to him said. He was one of Diabel's party members, which Kibaou supposed he was now, too. This kid, who called himself One Snow, was tall for a teenager and fought like a kendoka, all straightforward and stuff. Kibaou kinda liked him. "Our job is to control the flow of the battle rather than deal damage, right now."

"Tch." Kibaou said, swinging his sword in a half-hearted feint towards the Add. "I don't like watching little girls fighting hard while I'm sitting around playing pattycake."

One Snow darted forward to slash at the Add's flank, pushing it to within a sliver of Yellow, finally!

Then he scooted back, whipping his feet apart and then pulling together to retreat back to the ring surrounding the [Attendant Taurus] before it could counter him. "I know what you mean." He admitted once he was standing by Kibaou again. "I don't like watching Itagaki fight while I'm on retreat, either."

Kibaou followed his gaze to the teenaged girl in the heavy armor equipment with the long spear, which even as they watched, pierced the minotaur's chest and finally, finally forced it into the [Yellow HP Zone]. "Alright!" Kibaou shouted. "Good Job!"

Then, the [Attendant Taurus] screamed, a multi-voiced, alien sound, the screeching of something that didn't even have vocal cords. It was a horribly familiar sound effect.

It hunched over, spasming, before arching its beak, baying as long worms burrowed through its flesh.

"It's going berserk like Illfang!" Kibaou shouted. "We gotta turn up the pressure!" He charged forward. "Come on, we gotta focus on damage now!"

"Right!" One Snow shouted beside him, crouching low and exploding forward with his sword out parallel to the ground.

I I I

His new [Anneal Blade] was marked with the triple-stacked Tyr, the Rune of Victory, the foundation of [Weapon Reinforcement] of the [Runecraft Magic System]. He had carefully drawn the Rune on with his own glowing finger, the mark made without ink or chisel, but painted on with pure prana. However, he had only swung it three times so far, and had probably done less damage than anyone.

[PM  
From: Lind To: Diabel  
gtta swch]

Instead, most of his attention was focused on the holographic screen in front of him. With the minimap, the amount of tactical information he had available was quite extensive. Rather than damage or attacking, he focused on his messages, ordering Party Leaders to advance or retreat.

[PM  
From: Diabel To: Lind  
k rnfrc n rt]

His armor and shield had been carved with Runes of Protection, from injury, disease, and poison. His resistance to damage and status effects were excellent. He was probably one of the strongest tanks in the Raid. However, the number of times he had been targeted by an enemy was even less than his attacks. He'd only been attacked twice.

[PM  
From: Diabel To: Godfree  
Hlp Lind on 3]

But he had been humbled against [Illfang the Kobold Lord]. Certainly he had known that the [Sixth Ranger] was a strong player, he had witnessed it with his own eyes. But he had assumed that he was a knife-using speed type that wouldn't be able to do much damage against the Boss. Even when he had appeared before Diabel, his advantage had been knowing about the rules rather than having any particular skills.

Compared to that, he had been more concerned with making sure Kirito didn't swoop in and grab the Last Attack like he had done so astutely in the beta. He had been distracted by the talent of the rapier-user Asuna and thought about getting her to join him. It was just a guess on his part, but that would probably pull Kirito into his orbit as a bonus.

And, he had been thinking about how he could manage [Von Ilya]. She was a strong and disruptive player. Although her stats were excellent and she played well, she wasn't really a genius player, so much as an absolutely ruthless one. She didn't have better reactions, she just hesitated less than others. To be honest, the fact they were about equal in abilities despite his age advantage was personally frustrating. He had his suspicions about what her character had been in the beta, but considering himself as an example, that didn't worry him very much. No, what worried him was her presence like royalty. She didn't gather people's attention so much as demand it. Corralling people like her was exhausting.

So he had charged forward, in front of them, to pull everyone along behind him.

And in exchange, he nearly died.

It had been humbling. The player he had disregarded as ultimately useless had completely overshadowed him and everyone he considered a rival. While cunningly building a castle to fight and assembling his army to compete with other warlords, someone had fired a ballistic missile and ended the first battle with impossible, overwhelming firepower.

However.

None of them could lead. Not like he could. Ilya could give orders but had no strategy. Kirito was a natural loner, someone who could be trusted to do the right thing but lacked the instincts to give orders. The [Sixth Ranger] willingly alienated himself by his strength instead of even trying to use it to stand before others.

So he would not compete with them in personal fighting power. Rather than focusing on what he could accomplish with his one sword, he would focus on controlling these ninety swords. He expanded his target from the battlefield captain to the role of general.

He was getting distracted.

A scream echoed across the room. His eyes darted up from the map, and whipped back and forth from the chaos around the Boss, to the Adds looming over the players gathered around them, until it landed on the source of the familiar, horrible scream.

Yes, it was the [Attendant Taurus] right in front of him. With two of the other Adds down, it seemed that a condition for a [Berserk Mode] was triggered for the remaining four.

Leaving aside the tactical considerations, Diabel had a heartfelt complaint. "Not more worms." Since that time, he had discovered a new and entirely rational antipathy in his heart.

I I I

Shortly after the unnatural scream died down, another keening voice climbed up on the other side of the boss.

Cuvie whipped his eyes over, checking and seeing that yes, a second Add had started that scream when its HP crossed into Yellow. He hated that noise. It creeped him out. But he had work to do.

"Ha!" He snarled as he stepped around, switching with Ilya to stab the boss. Already, it was nearly in the Red. Like this, the unexpected circumstance of the Red Raid killing the boss before the White Raid handled the Adds, might actually happen. As a member of the Red Raid, that felt like something good to aim for.

"Switch!" He shouted, jerking back to escape from getting whipped in the face by a tail the size and weight of an industrial chain. He'd already seen Yona get pushed all the way into yellow just from getting a nat crit from taking that tail right to the jawbone. Bones had fixed the bastard up but still.

Ilya darted in, swinging her huge sword in a curving arc, cleaving in and through the boss. "Yeah!" He shouted, in visceral glee. He didn't really get what she had that Yona got all worked up about, but she was pretty awesome, with that big sword and all. Just cool.

"Switch!" Yona shouted, pushing those stupid glasses up on his face even as he brought his sword into a guard from finishing a skill. Cuvie lunged in, attack with his spear, darting away.

There was a sound like firecrackers as that Asuna chick used her explodie-sword. That was a wicked cool idea that Cuvie wasn't too proud to steal after this. His eyes darted back to the HP bar, and he crowed in delight. A ragged cheer joined his voice, as others also started shouting. The boss had finally crossed into the [Red Zone].

It stopped attacking. It spun a third of the way around, and started cantering off towards a different part of the room, just ignoring them. There was a lag, as people struggled to keep up. Cuvie found himself jogging along the flank, half-heartedly whacking it with his spear.

"What gives?" He complained.

"It's going for one of the downed Adds." Cuvie started, jerking a step sideways, before he recognized the voice of that Kirito guy that had already been partied with Ilya.

"Why?" He asked, hoping that Kirito had a hypothesis or something.

He was disappointed. "I guess we'll find out." Was what the black swordsman cryptically said.

I I I

"No no no." Diabel muttered.

Of the four remaining [Attendant Taurus], there were three on this side of the Boss, roughly in a triangle. The last one, on the far side, was in the Red, with an [Attendant Taurus Corpse] behind it. The first [Attendant Taurus Corpse] was all the way over nearly by the door, far behind them.

The boss was moving towards the [Attendant Taurus Corpse] by the door. If you drew a line from the [Attendant Taurus] closest to this wall and the one closest to the middle of the room, and continued to the far wall, then the boss would cross that line while moving towards the corpse. In order to keep both the third Attendant and the Boss in their sight, and to minimize their chances of lining up, the four Parties fighting those two Attendants had them pincered on that line.

He hit [Send] and started running.

I I I

"Now!" Kibaou shouted, lunging forward to swash at the [Attendant Taurus]. He jumped back, and the axe crashed down into the floor where he'd been. A blast of wind stuck it in the side of its head, and that tiny amount of damage was enough to push it into the Red.

A cheer went up, and then sputtered out, as everyone glanced down where the menu was.

[PM  
From: Diabel To: All  
CIRCLE UP!]

Kibaou didn't think. "Run!" He shouted, turning in place and picking a point on the wall.

I I I

[Ore Rocks the Stone Bull] stopped in place. He turned.

Cuvie automatically looked up, and in one absurd instant, made eye contact with the blazing red iris of the Boss. He stepped back.

The Bull dropped into a crouch.

His horns gathered light, glowing like a sword skill.

It happened so fast.

Something grabbed his shoulder and wrenched him around, sending him spinning away. He landed and rolled, looking up from the ground. Yona still had his hand extended, crouched in a deep stance from heaving him out of the way.

The Bull charged, like a train going past the station without even slowing down.

There was a boom and a shockwave, and the Bull crashed into the wall.

Players were screaming and groaning. Cuvie sat on his ass and stared. Since Diabel had gotten the PM off, people had scattered, started running, diving out of the way. There were a few that had gotten trampled that were already in the red, like a guy with his leg crushed right off, and a bunch in the yellow from getting blown around in the shockwave. Cuvie might have been one of them. He wasn't sure.

Because… Yona, that stupid, fat lolicon bastard, he'd grabbed Cuvie and thrown him out of the way, spinning himself around and ending up so that he was standing exactly where Cuvie had been, and he'd taken that horn right to the chest instead.

"Dammit." Cuvie muttered, tearing up. "Dammit!" He shouted, crying.

I I I

With a blackly comical animation, [Ore Rocks the Stone Bull] struggled, kicking impotently, and pulled itself out of the wall, wrenching the horns free from where they had been thrust into the wall, catching him in place as he stumbled awkwardly, drunkenly.

"Keep on the Adds!" Diabel shouted. "Parties on the Adds keep on them!"

Right. That made sense. Otherwise they'd get swarmed. Kirito glanced around. "You okay?" He asked Asuna.

She glanced up at her HP bar. Hers was [Yellow] just like his. Not close to Red, but much closer than he would have wanted, at any rate. "Okay enough." She said, standing up. "What now?"

[Ore Rocks the Stone Bull] was in the red. Two [Attendant Taurus] were in the yellow, almost red, and there were four [Attendant Taurus Corpses] on the field. Looks like the Boss' charge attack could also hit its own team, huh.

Kirito shook his head and stood. His ears were ringing. The [Pain Simulation] was probably simulating something like a concussion.

The Boss turned from the wall, and started walking towards the closest Corpse, which was the second one it had blown through, now.

Kirito adjusted the grip on his sword. "We keep fighting."

The Bull lowered its head towards the Corpse.

That freakish, unnatural screaming started again.

The [Ore Rocks] was eating the [Attendant Corpse]. No.

It was ripping the corpse apart by shoving it around like a cow nosing at grass, and sucking those creepy worms out like spaghetti and swallowing them whole. It was gross. It made Kirito want to vomit, and puke, and cry. Obviously it was nauseating to watch. But what made him want to cry, was that [Eating the Corpse] was the animation for a regeneration effect.

"Asuna." Ilya said from behind them. "Go use your Spell and burn up those worms, okay?" Her HP was yellow too, but she slung her sword into a guard position with perfect steadiness. "Kirito and I will screen you."

Asuna gripped her sword. "Right." With a nod, she took off sprinting, Kirito and Ilya following her.

Kirito shook his head, but as soon as he got in range, he used a two-hit combo to get the boss. Ah, that put it back in the Red. No, wait, it was Yellow again. Ilya cut it from the other side. Nope, still Yellow. It was healing faster than they could hurt it. His brain was hammering against his skull in time with his heart, so he clenched his teeth to deal with it.

His heart clenched when it attacked Asuna, squeezing his ribs and his skull at the same time. She dodged, but didn't counter. Instead, she focused on attacking the Corpse again. It was already scattered into pieces. Somehow, the ragged edges of skin with the glowing pixilated insides, with those sinuous, toothy worms coming out, was more disgusting than if it had just been shreds of raw meat.

Finally, the Boss stopped eating. Instead, he started trotting forward again. Asuna dived out of the way.

"Asuna!" Ilya shouted from the far side of the Boss. "The other one too!"

Oh yeah. Kirito swung his sword, stepping through to maintain his jogging pace even as he spun around to cut the Boss.

Asuna charged forward towards the second [Attendant Taurus Corpse]. One down, three to go. At least. His jaw was locked in place from how tight his teeth were clenched, he couldn't say anything.

The Bull stopped. Had Asuna done it? Kirito finished his attack and looked.

No, she was still burning those worms. Their screams reminded Kirito of a survival horror game. He'd died a lot in that one, which was definitely not something he wanted to be reminded of right now. The Bull moved forward a little bit, like one step.

"Everyone!" Kibaou shouted. "Come on, we need to support Diabel-san!"

"NO!" Diabel screamed. He was standing in front of the Boss, teeth clenched, struggling, sliding back with his shield pushing against the head. He was leaning against his shield, his whole body weight behind it, slamming his shield into the Boss. He was failing to stop it's advance, but he was slowing it down enough that Asuna shouldn't have any problems.

A few heavy-type players started running, converging on the spot where Diabel was, to lend their strength to keeping the Bull in place.

"DON'T LINE UP!" Diabel screamed again, saying something really problematic.

The players faltered. Kirito could see it happening. He glanced over his shoulder.

The players that had been scattered on either side of the Bull, they were running towards the Boss. But, because they had been scattered along its side, they had tripped and fallen all along that line. And now, charging towards the boss, converging on the head, they had naturally lined up again.

They were paused, staring, as those words told them what kind of predicament they were in. Even Kirito. It reminded him of that upside-down sensation when Ilya had executed that [Plains Taurus] using a spell that he hadn't even know about.

Oh, that was a good idea, huh?

Kirito stepped back, breathed out, closed his eyes, and circulated prana through his Circuit. His strength was enhanced to the limit. Going over the limit would burst him like an exploded tank, but there was always a factor of safety; in real life, the calculated limit was always below the true limit, because the real limit was an unknowable quantity. Fortunately, here, in this game, he had an indicator that would tell him how close he was to the real limit. He [Reinforced] his strength. As a level 13 character, his maximum possible Strength was 13 * 5 = 65; his actual default Strength was 44, boosted to 60 with his [Reinforce Strength] spell. A boost of 16 points was one limit. Carefully, he exceeded the limit of his skill with the spell. He went to +21, to the limit of his character. That cost about an eighth of his HP, and it felt like he was scrubbing the inside of his body with steel wool, like his Circuits were an overloaded circuit and the resistors were going to blow any moment. He went higher, to +26, his strength all the way to 70, higher than anyone else in the game right now. His HP turned red just as he watched; that had cost him about another eighth of HP. He had exchanged a quarter of his Hit Points for that strength.

Next was his sword.

It was the same [Anneal Blade] that he had equipped the night of the very first day, his constant companion since then. By default it was unenhanced, because that had been disabled. However, the same effect could be achieved with [Reinforcement]. Right now he had taken it to the limit of eight, by giving it +4 Sharpness and +4 Durability.

He pulsed ether through it and washed away the Durability enhancement. Now it was just +4, all in Sharpness. That was something that being an Ether elemental allowed, at least. He could reverse his own magic that easily. The remaining [Item Durability] of the weapon was still about 90% of maximum, due to the damage it had received during battle.

His limit with [Reinforce Sharpness] was +6. Taking it all the way to +8 inflicted another 10% durability damage. Exceeding the limits of both item and spell pushed it into the chipped condition, between 10% and 25% remaining. Yeesh, items couldn't handle this nearly as well as a player character could. But right now, it was the best sword in the game.

He was ready. He opened his eyes, and they throbbed out against his eye sockets.

[Ore Rocks the Stone Bull] stepped towards him, turning to face the players. He heard Diabel shout.

Kirito screamed. He tensed his body, stiffening up in place, and then moved like a snapping spring. His sword came across in a magnificent [Horizontal]. Even though the motion of the sword was perfectly smooth and flat, the light of the skill wobbled all over the place from his uncertain magecraft. He stepped through, following the pull of his sword with his left foot, and spun around in a tight circle, still screaming as he launched another skill, pushing himself into a [Reaver].

That one connected perfectly, too. He trembled in place, stumbling forward. He didn't think he'd been all that angry, but somehow, after screaming and attacking like that, he felt really used up.

There was a huge crash behind him. The Boss had fallen over.

With both legs on the right side completely cut out from under it, it was lying crippled in place, thrashing and kicking. Kirito stumbled, and paused, glancing at his HP.

It had gone down more. He only had a little bit of HP left. Ah, moving beyond his limits also extracted a penalty, huh? That was annoying too.

"Finish him!"

When he heard Ilya shout that, he decided he was going to just sit the rest of this one out. Carefully, with a trembling, shaking arm, he lowered himself onto the floor. Well, his arm collapsed so he fell the last few centimeters to land on his butt.

I I I

There were three basic swinging-type skills that you could use with a sword.

[Horizontal], [Diagonal], and [Vertical].

One Snow, that guy that hung around with Diabel, preferred to use a super-steep [Diagonal] rather than the [Vertical]. That made a lot of sense to Ilya. The damage went down a little bit, but the motion lock at the end of [Diagonal] was much shorter than [Vertical], so for someone who needed to be aware of other enemies in the battle that was probably the better choice.

But, thanks to Kirito-kun's cleverness, this wasn't a battle anymore.

This was an execution.

Ilya raised the sword high over her head, she lined it up perfectly. Just like the very first sword attack she'd seen in the [Official Launch], the one that Shirou had used against that boar, that wasn't even a Sword Skill, she lined her sword up just like that.

"Finish Him!" She shouted triumphantly, and the [Vertical] came down right on the throat of [Ore Rocks the Stone Bull], which was exposed when he was lying so helplessly on his side. How cute.

[Critical Hit!]

Ilya pouted. "Mou!" She complained. "Just how much HP do you have anyway?"

But she raised the sword again, lining up the same [Vertical], stepping forward so that she could also get the spine this time.

[Critical Hit!]

Like that, the HP bar of [Ore Rocks the Stone Bull] emptied out its last red sliver.

[Congratulations!]

A trumpet fanfare started up, the game praising the players.

There was a pause, and then—

Cheering. Ilya glanced around. Diabel wasn't even looking at her, so she frowned, following his gaze. Oh, the other [Attendant Taurus] had de-popped when the boss went. That made sense. He turned back, and blinked when he noticed her staring at him, before he smiled professionally and gave her a thumbs up. She huffed and looked away, while Kibaou tackled him from behind, swinging an arm around the Great Leader's neck and cheering wildly.

I I I

"Cuvie!" When he heard someone shout his name, Cuvie blinked, rolling around to face the guy that came running up to him. Bones had a relieved smile on that skinny horse face of his, even as he looked back and forth. "Where's Yona?"


	21. 5:4 Shirou, and Liz, and Friends

Carefully, he poured prana into his eyeballs. They were holographic marbles of vitreous jelly, without nerves or structures; even the iris and cornea was just a color texture applied to the surface of the eyeball without any real function. Compared to the difficulty of Human Reinforcement in real life, here in the game it was as easy as Reinforcing a glass marble. Of course, a failure would simply result in a stab of pain like a spike driven into his head and darkness as the function was lost, but since Ilya had some healing magic, that was completely reversible.

He breathed out, opening his newly Reinforced eyes, and cast his gaze out across the plains. He was on a mountain to the south of [Urbus], using the peak as a vantage point to look out across approximately a third of the Second Floor. From here, he could see hundreds of players.

None of them were in trouble. He couldn't make out individual HP bars as anything but a tiny smudge of color, but his enhanced eyesight was enough to compare their ant-sized motions to the equally ant-sized motions of the floor monsters and estimate the flow of battle. Everyone was doing just fine. Even as he watched a party of six players fighting a [Plains Taurus], one of their front rank players lost enough HP that the smudge of color that floated over their head like a bobbing fishing sinker turned yellow. However, a rear line player cast a healing spell, so that problem was fixed as soon as he noticed it.

That was the situation. Compared to the wild days of charging back and forth at top speed to save people when their fights spiraled out of control, now the [Sixth Ranger] just stood on a mountain like a gargoyle, watching everything without moving. There were only occasional problems on the Second Floor. As a rule, only players that had become confident in their abilities rose from the First Floor to challenge this one.

In general, there were now three kinds of players in Shirou's opinion as the [Sixth Ranger]. Certainly there were many other ways to divide them, but from his perspective, these were the important ones.

Those that remained safe in the [Starting City], or now that the [Transit Gate] between cities was open, [Urbus]. These players didn't require his protection, so he wasn't concerned with them.

Those that fought to accumulate XP and Col and increase their power. Call them, the [Hunters]. These players had constituted the vast majority of people that he had saved during the first month: those that started fights without the ability to win. Although these kinds were still the vast majority of players that left the [Cities], he had much less to do with them. The safety margin of higher levels, of the character having more XP, while the player had more battle experience, had increased enough that he only rarely determined the need to interfere in battles anymore.

The third category… in the past, that had been [Suicidal Players]. Most of them didn't go out and pick fights that they intended to lose, although he did encounter some that had fought recklessly. No, the vast majority of these players had gone to the edge of the Floor and thrown themselves off. Shirou had the hardest time saving these Players because they didn't always cooperate. Moreover, their thinking was completely alien to him, so he had absolutely no idea how to speak with them. In the end, the only thing he could do was push them onto others.

Maybe they weren't truly rehabilitated, but since the fight against [Illfang], he hadn't encountered even one [Suicidal Player]. The atmosphere had changed completely since the [First Floor] was cleared.

So in exchange for [Suicidal Players], a new category was introduced, the [Gatherers]. Like the [Suicidal Players], they were players that left the [Starting City] with no intention of accumulating battle spoils. However, other than that one similarity they were completely different. As a rule, they were Players who, inspired by the [Front Line], had decided to become supporting Players focused on crafting skills. They left the [Cities] to accumulate ingredients and raw materials.

By now, most [Hunters] knew what they were doing, and as a general principle, new ones were happily integrated into existing parties. But [Gatherers] were usually both under-leveled compared to other Characters in the area and, further, had less [Battle Experience] than other Players.

They were the reason that Shirou had decided to patrol the [Second Floor]. It was slightly counter-intuitive, but compared to the XP and Col that steadily increased by enemy level so that there was no reason to move to the [Second Floor] until you had finished leveling on the [First Floor], there was a big jump in the quality of materials available on the [Second Floor] compared to the [First]. The reason for that was completely unrelated to the monsters, but instead, was rooted in the geography. The [Second Floor] possessed many mountains and hills with easily accessed goods.

Therefore, for [Players] who disregarded the enemies who inhabited them and considered only the [Floors] themselves, the [Second Floor] was clearly a superior resource. With only the minimum level they felt necessary with uniformed judgment, many [Gathers] entered the [Second Floor].

Shirou completed his survey of the surrounding terrain. He jumped, leaping out to confidently spring from position to position as he descended like a mountain goat, the route already mapped in his mind as he cleared the maximum amount of distance in the minimum time. When he reached the bottom of the mountain, landing in a crouch in the scrub land, he took off at a run. Rather than the top-speed sprint of the first month, this was a steady jog that yielded the maximum amount of distance per unit of stamina. He was moving approximately to the [Northwest] to conduct another high-altitude survey.

I I I

Liz stepped back to dodge the blow, and then when had passed her, dashed forward to smash her mace into the enemy. The [Plains Taurus] made a long and angry sound like "moo!" that somehow conveyed anger and frustration.

"Switch!" She shouted.

While the [Plains Taurus] was still in the cooldown of its axe swing, she called out to her party members to press the attack.

"Right!" Takachan shouted, stepping forward to lunge with his spear.

"Gotchya!" At the same time, Shemeki-san, no, Doumeki-san in this game, also dashed forward, sword held out behind him as he rushed with his shield.

But, since they both responded, they got in each other's way. Takachan managed to attack, but he had to make an awkward step sideways. It meant that rather than using a [Skill], he had to just poke the enemy with his weapon. The damage was much lower than it should have been.

Meanwhile, Doumeki-san attacked at a bad angle. He still pulled off a [Reaver] Skill, but since he wasn't able to use it correctly, it was only a [Nick] that did even less damage than Takachan's spear jab.

Liz grit her teeth, to prevent herself from scolding them. She couldn't exactly blame adults for wanting to protect a child. She was mature enough to understand that. Doumeki, in particular, would have to answer to her parents when they got out of the game, and she knew that even if they weren't very close, the man did consider her father a friend. Compared to that, Takachan was the Party Leader, so he felt the responsibility of all their lives, especially for girl that wasn't even an adult.

Of course, the result was that they both tried to protect her as fast as possible. Because they didn't trust her abilities, it meant that the effectiveness of the party went down, and everyone was exposed to more danger.

While the three of them retreated in an ungainly manner, it was Hard-san that stepped forward, using his Two-handed Sword to parry the axe skill the monster used. Completely separate from his [Player Skills] he handled the sword like he knew what he was doing. Combined with his slicked-back, well-oiled hair over his naturally cold expression and the Hiroshima dialect he spoke with, on top of his [Name], she kind of wondered what exactly he did in the real world.

"Go around and attack from the left flank!" Takachan shouted at Doumeki-san, pointing with his right hand while he held his spear with his left hand and adjusted his grip.

But, because his eyes were focused on the enemy, Doumeki-san didn't see the gesture, even as he shouted "Right!" and charged diagonally behind Hard-san to attack from the left side, rather than the left flank of the monster facing towards them.

Liz took the initiative and charged the way Doumeki was supposed to, using her mace to smash the minotaur monster in the side while it raised its axe again. The [Horizontal] of her two-handed mace did the most damage of everyone in the party, so like that, the [HP bar] of the monster went down past three-quarters full.

She jumped back, stumbling, as the [Plains Taurus] made a long bellowing sound, turning to face her. She had probably maxed out the aggro, so it would be coming after her. She grimaced in fear, looking up at it, even as Hard-san grimly raised his sword one more time.

But a white figure blurred past them.

With a one-handed straight sword like Doumeki-san, but without a shield like him, that guy entered into the monster's space faster than Liz could follow. Even though he didn't use any sword skills and simply swung his blade, the sharp and tight slashes across the throat and into the left thigh followed by the thrust into the right side under the ribs before the quick disengage, just that much was enough for this person to push the HP bar deep into the red.

Without pausing, the figure stepped around and past the enemy mob, so that it was pincered between them. Like that, the monster completely forgot about Liz and focused on this new, much greater threat. It bellowed, swinging its axe again.

That guy, who was even taller than Hard-san, was wearing an all-white jump suit with a red scarf wrapped around his neck like a muffler, and a mask that covered his whole head with only an opening to expose his eyes; and on his forehead was a three-point triangular red star emblem. Without even stepping, he simply leaned to the side and the axe swished past him, missing by inches that might as well have been meters.

The [Sixth Ranger] had appeared before them.

They watched with something between amazement and envy as he easily dodged the attacks that had been pressing them so hard. Without even raising his sword from a casual grip at his side, he took the minimum steps needed for the attacks to barely miss.

It was Takachan who reacted first, stepping past the wary guard of Hard-san to use a spear skill, stabbing the minotaur in the back. With the sneak attack bonus, it was enough to reduce the HP to zero, and the [Plains Taurus] burst into pixels and evaporated.

[Congratulations!] was announced. Because the mob had been a higher level than the party average, the reward of XP and Col was quite substantial, especially for Takachan who had made the Last Attack.

"Thanks for your help." Takachan said, wiping his face. He had a complicated expression, like he really was thankful, but also like he wanted to complain about the interference.

"It wasn't a problem." The Sixth Ranger said, his golden eyes darting across them in an assessing manner. Liz felt a frown forming as he so casually dismissed what had just happened. Even if it was nothing to him, the way he said it was still a little annoying, like he was accidentally rubbing their faces in it. Rather than being sarcastic or condescending, he had simply given an honest opinion without any malice. For him, it really hadn't been a problem at all.

Before anyone could figure out how to rebut his words, he spoke again. "If you're running the [Gold Nuggets Quest], then the riverbed to the north of Urbus is more productive than the stream to the west of here. Even adding the travel time it would be faster to go there. And there are less enemies."

Although Takachan stepped forward to speak, he was cut off when Doumeki-san opened his mouth. "We're not running a Quest." He said, challenging the assumptions of the man before them.

The Sixth Ranger didn't say anything, but eventually he nodded in acceptance, and then spoke again. "If you're grinding XP, there's a lake to the east of the Starting City. The monsters on the shore of that lake are appropriate for your level."

Liz huffed, frowning. "And how do you even know what level we are, huh?"

He glanced at her, slightly surprised. "You're all level six." His gaze darted to Takachan, before he amended his statement. "Well, with the XP from that battle, you're level seven, now." He said to the Party Leader.

Takachan blinked, before looking down at his menu. "Hey… you're right!" He said, smiling at the good news.

"Congratulations, boss." Hard-san said, smoothly cutting in. Liz could appreciate that he was trying to prevent this situation from turning into a fight, even though she didn't really feel guilty about contributing to that herself.

Doumeki smiled himself. "Well… I say we're not running a Quest, but it's that we haven't been given a formal Quest by an NPC." He glanced around at the party, like he was asking permission, but he kept speaking regardless, turning his attention back to the Sixth Ranger. "What we're doing is chasing a rumor."

"A rumor?" The Sixth Ranger asked.

Doumeki nodded. "Like your first guessed, we're not people that grind levels, but instead we're crafting players. All of us are focused on having the best [Blacksmith] skills we possibly can."

"Really." The Sixth Ranger said. Liz blinked. Someone responding to a statement like that with 'really' as a one-word response, she would have thought that he was being dismissive or looking down on them with skepticism. But, rather than that, his tone was warm with excitement, like they had said something nice.

Clearly encouraged by his tone, Doumeki nodded affably. "Yes. So you see, the item [Iron Ore] is the most critical material we need. An item called [Low Quality Iron Ore] can be purchased in town, but for [Medium] or [High Quality] you have to perform resource fetch quests." Doumeki leaned forward, like he was sharing a secret. "But the NPC that sells [Low Quality Iron Ore], since the four of us always send Hard-san to purchase in bulk since his [Appraise] skill is best, we heard the rumor from that vendor first: that there's a place to get [Ultra-High Quality Iron Ore] somewhere to the West of Urbus." Doumeki nodded, still holding that conspiratorial expression on his face. Then, like it had just occurred to him, he cracked an eye open. "Say… would you like to join us while we look for it?"

Liz glanced at Takachan, who had a fixed expression on his face because Doumeki had supplanted his position as party leader to unilaterally invite the Sixth Ranger along.

The Sixth Ranger glanced down, looking slightly torn, before he looked up. "As for that… the [Second Floor Boss Raid] is this afternoon, so I can only join you until lunchtime, then I'll have to go to that, okay?"

Takachan looked considerably heartened by such a conditional agreement, before he stepped forward to actually send the Party Invite.

Liz had something else that concerned her, as she stepped forward. "Hey, Doumeki-san," she whispered in a sharp tone, drawing the man's attention. "What's the big idea?"

Doumeki glanced to where the Sixth Ranger was speaking with Takachan before sighing, crouching slightly to put his head about level with hers, before speaking. "This quest, do you really think we could do it without any protection from strong players?" Seeing her expression, he pushed forward. "And besides, even if his words are a little awkward, rather than defeating the [Plains Taurus] himself he just pushed it down to a few HP and let us finish it so that our party got the XP instead of him." He smiled at her. "It's important to gauge people's actions, and not just get distracted by their words. Don't you think someone like that would be really helpful?"

Liz admitted defeat. "I guess." She muttered. "But what if he wants a cut?"

"Then we let him have one." Doumeki affably remarked. "After all, he would have earned it, right?"

Liz admitted that was also true. She glanced up as a fifth name was added to their Party List: [SHIROU]. She was surprised that it was something that normal, rather than him actually being named [Sixth Ranger].

"Let's go." Takachan said, pushing forwards.

I I I

With the [Sixth Ranger] in the party, the battles had gone from being difficult and scary to almost insultingly easy. They didn't have to actually do anything; he just dashed forward, sliced the enemy down to a fraction of HP, and then kept its aggro while one of the rest of the party dealt the Last Attack and got the XP bonus.

Because he was the one that had actually heard the rumor directly, they let Hard-san lead the way. He was usually pretty quiet, but today he was being surprisingly talkative, since his role of [Party Guide] gave him something to talk about other than himself or other people, which he usually avoided doing.

He was pointing at the cliff they were walking along. "See that striated pattern?" He said, his finger moving sideways. "I'm a little surprised by the fidelity. The horizontal banding is layering as the sedimentary rocks were laid down. The reason the mountain looks flat is because it's actually harder rock that wasn't worn down by erosion like the rest, so rather than being pushed up, they actually resisted getting worn down like the rest of the land. Those distinctive flat-topped mountains are called [mesas] in North America." He paused, before glancing at Takachan and amending, "well, that's how it happens in the real world, so I guess that's what they're reproducing here."

He crouched down, and picked up a single free rock. He brushed it off with his hand, even though that was pointless since there weren't any [dirt] items or whatever caked on it, before holding it up in front of him towards the party. "See? Shale. That mountain is probably igneous, from a lava flow." He shook his head, sighing wistfully. "It's kind of frustrating. Putting so much effort into these details, it's like they're teasing me."

"You sure know a lot about rocks, Hard-san." Liz said, blinking. She wouldn't have thought it at all.

He smiled crookedly. "I didn't tell you?" He said, glancing around, confirming he didn't when the party shook their heads. "I only picked [Hard] because [Rock] was already taken by another player."

"So you're not a yakuza?" Liz asked, frowning, before she realized what an inappropriate question it was. Not just because it was rude to ask a Japanese person so directly, but because it was rude to ask another Player about [Outside].

He shook his head, smiling softly. "I'm… I was a professor of geology." He corrected the beginning of his sentence, setting the rock down and standing up straight. "Well, for now let's keep going." He walked forward, eyes following the cliff in front of him.

"Assuming that it's an accurate simulation, then, you have an idea of what the [Ultra High Quality Iron Ore] might be?" Takachan asked, slightly eagerly.

Hard-san was quiet for a moment before answering. "Well… at first I thought it would be from a meteor. Because of the high nickel content and the high purity compared to mined ores, meteoric iron was the first place we, that is, human civilization, got iron from: ferrous asteroids that wandered into the orbit of Earth and crashed into the surface of the planet."

"The very first sword was made from otherworldly metal, huh." The Sixth Ranger said something that wasn't quite a question. Liz looked at him. Compared to his earlier rough remarks, hearing him say something slightly romantic like that was a surprise.

"Well…" Hard-san considered the comment seriously. "Maybe. I mean, copper was the first metal human civilization really used for tools, but something like a sword couldn't be made until bronze was developed, and alloying bronze would be about as hard as working meteoric iron." He stopped in place, rubbing his chin in his hand. "Actually… yeah, that could really be the case. Tin-copper bronze was invented in Mesopotamia about six thousand years ago, and there are meteoric iron fragments from Egypt about that old, so…" he shook his head. "We can't be sure because the archaeological record is so sparse." He grinned a little self-consciously at the Sixth Ranger. "But, I don't know that much about archaeology, just the parts that touch on geology, so I can't really say for sure."

"I see." The Sixth Ranger said, closing his eyes as if Hard-san said something really profound. Liz decided that he was kinda strange, even if he was like a hero out of a tv show. Actually that probably added to the strange rather than subtracting from it.

"But you don't think that's going to be the case?" Takachan prompted, gently bringing them back on topic.

Hard-san shook his head. "If that was the case we'd be looking for impact craters, but there's nothing like that at all." He waved his hand at the mountain cliff beside them. "But if there's supposed to be a lot of volcanism in the geologic past of the floor then it might be telluric iron, stuff that was carried up from deep in the earth by lava. That's much rarer."

"Are you sure that we can rely on that?" Doumeki asked. He hurried to add, "Not that I'm questioning your expertise of course, but it's just that I wonder if it might be unlikely considering that Aincrad has the [Floor System] as the basic structure as a floating castle."

Hard-san shrugged. "Well, it fits if it's supposed to be a puzzle for players to figure out, right?"

Takachan nodded in agreement. "Even if the reasoning ends up being completely wrong, it might lead us to the right path by coincidence. Without a more concrete lead, I think we should follow it."

Hard-san stopped in place, glancing back and forth along the cliff face in front of him, his hands on his hips as he considered. "Maybe we should climb up here." He said.

"It looks a little steep." Liz said nervously.

Hard-san nodded slowly. "That makes me worried too, but climbing is easier and safer in Aincrad. And the rocks here look firm without any rubble, so we shouldn't trip any trap-type events." Hard-san nodded to himself and then pointed, his finger zig-zagging as it followed a few ridges that crossed each other. "And with the logic of a game, that might even be a path to follow."

Takachan stepped forward to consider it as well. "Why don't you lead, and we'll follow after you so that we know where to put our hands and feet?" He offered. "I mean, if that's not a problem."

Hard-san agreed, slapping his hands together and shaking them slightly. "I'd be a lot more comfortable if we had climbing harnesses and gear, but all I have is rope, not pitons, so for safety just remember that fall damage is really low compared to real life."

"That wasn't actually comforting." Liz muttered, following second after Hard-san.

"It wasn't supposed to be." Hard-san primly replied, without looking over his shoulder as he scaled the cliff.

Liz grunted, following after him.

It took a little getting used to, but she was surprised to find that climbing was actually pretty fun. It was like a puzzle to find the best place to put her hands and feet, and since she didn't get tired or exhausted, she wasn't pressured by the creeping soreness of her fingers or the lactic pain in her arms. Compared to just doing pull-ups in gym class, rock-climbing in Aincrad was fun.

At least, until she glanced down to see how Doumeki and the rest of the party was doing, and froze in place as vertigo swept over her, forcing herself to calm down as she only looked at the rocks right above her. She understood why Hard-san's head was fixed in place, and he only glanced down to check on them when he was firmly supported with all four limbs.

So, when she cleared the cliff after him, she was relieved, stepping forward with an exhausted and exaggerated sigh as she rolled the imagined soreness out of her shoulders.

She blinked as she felt Hard-san's hand grip her shoulder, but the protest died on her lips as she glanced at his face. Following the worried look in his eye, she saw that there was a group of monsters approaching. Casually walking towards them, was a sickly minotaur like an emaciated [Plains Taurus] as well as more traditional cow-like monster, although for some reason it had something like a beehive on the hump of its shoulders.

Hard-san grimly equipped his two-handed sword, glancing down at the cliff.

That's right, the rest of the party was still climbing up. So, the only thing to do was to also equip her mace and stand beside Hard-san.

"I'll attack." Hard-san grunted. "You stay here and protect the rest of the party, okay?"

Liz glanced at him, and swallowed her complains with a scowl. Once again, being the only child in that was otherwise adults was affecting the way she was treated. "You can't do it yourself." She retorted. "If we do it carefully together we can hold them off until everyone joins us."

Hard-san glanced aside, studying her face for a long moment with an expression she couldn't read, before he finally nodded, turning to face towards the approaching enemies. "Fine." He said.

She stepped into a fighting stance, holding her mace up beside her. Now that they were closer, she could see what they were called: the gangly minotaur, which even had a filmy eye with a cataract, was an [Infected Taurus], while the more normal-looking cow despite the papery, hive-like structure on its back was called a [Hosting Cattle].

"Prioritize the minotaur." Hard-san ordered, stepping forward and preparing himself. As soon as it was close enough, he used a [Sword Skill], and his [Wide Horizontal] was the first attack to connect. "Switch!" He shouted, as the [Infected Taurus] prepared its axe.

"Right!" Liz shouted, dashing forwards. She used a [Fierce Bash], the mace equivalent of the [Reaver], to strike the minotaur. It had a long cooldown, but importantly, it could both interrupt someone else's Sword Skill and also inflict the Knockback condition.

"Good!" Hard-san shouted, stepping forward to use his own skill.

Rather than attack, the [Hosting Cattle] simply stood in place, away from them. A strange orange bar was over it. It wasn't centered over the body like an HP bar, but rather it floated over the mob's head, and the outline was thicker. When the bar filled, it disappeared.

Three evil-looking [Hosted Wasps] popped into existence around the [Hosting Cattle]. Liz understood.

"It's a spawning type!" She shouted, gesturing at the [Hosting Cattle].

Hard-san frowned, looking back and forth. He growled, shaking his head. "We've already drawn aggro on the minotaur, so we should finish it first."

Liz also glanced between the two, biting her lip. "If you say so." Indecision would be worse than doing the wrong thing, so she ran forward to use another [Fierce Bash] to interrupt the axe attack.

They quickly settled into a rhythm, attacking one after the other. They simply grit their teeth and ignored the stings of the [Host Wasps]. Even if they were under-leveled for the floor, the Wasp attacks weren't all that dangerous, just really distressing because of the pain, although even that was more like an ant bite than something you'd expect from those dagger-like stingers.

When Doumeki joined them, they finished off the [Infected Taurus] quickly. Doumeki had the Fire Element, so he focused on roasting the [Hosted Wasps] with jets of flame. But his skill was still low, so after finishing off the nine that had spawned while they were fighting, he shook his head. "I'm already out of prana. I can gather more, but I'll start to take damage from over-reach."

Hard-san dragged Takachan over the edge. He had a worried look on his face because he'd heard them fighting, but seeing that everyone was still green, he sighed in profound relief.

"We just have to take down that cow thing before it spawns more." Liz charged forward, brandishing her mace. "Even if it uses melee, then that's better than it spawning these wasps!"

Although it watched them approach, the [Hosting Cattle] didn't make any moves, simply slowly filling up that orange bar that was floating over its head.

"She's right!" Takachan said, gripping his spear. "Let's finish it quickly!"

Liz struck first, using the [Fierce Bash], and retreating afterwards. "Switch!" She shouted.

The orange bar disappeared, simply dropping out. Instead, a red bar with the same over-heavy border appeared over the head of the monster. It filled much more quickly.

Hard-san stepped forward, swinging his sword in the [Broad Horizontal]. Just like before, the two of them fell into a rhythm of trading attacks, while Doumeki and Takachan held back, uncertain.

The red bar filled up, and the [Hosting Cattle] threw its head back.

"MOOOO!" Although it was a loud and slightly ridiculous roar, Liz blinked, surprised, as she collapsed to the ground with the [stun] condition.

"Get it!" Takachan shouted, dashing forward.

Liz could only watch, helplessly sprawled on the ground, as the two unparalyzed party members attacked the [Hosting Cow]. Fortunately, it didn't do anything like a trample attack on her or Hard-san, simply going back to filling up that unprecedented Orange Bar.

"Okay!" Doumeki shouted, as his [Horizontal] connected. Again, the [Orange Bar] was dropped and the [Red Bar] appeared. "We'll just retreat outside the [stun] range when it uses the special again!"

"Right!" Takachan agreed, using his own spear skill, retreating afterwards, smiling that they had gotten the [Hosting Cattle] almost to the yellow.

She was laying helpless on her back. She was really glad that they had a reliable plan and relieved that it seemed to be ignoring the two of them that were on the ground, but it was really scary not being able to move, just watching from the side with her face pressed to the ground.

But a white blur smashed into the [Hosting Cattle] like a cannonball. Spinning in place, Shirou cut the throat [Hosting Cattle] for a single [Critical Hit] that removed over half its HP just like that, before ruthlessly twisting his sword, whipping it around into a reverse grip to stab it into the brainpan from behind, entering right underneath where the spine would have been.

As soon as he verified the HP crossed zero, he turned, glancing at the two paralyzed party members with a tight expression on his face. "That was a mistake." He said with a tense voice. "They run out after spawning fifteen wasps, but if you attack them they use a rage skill that spawns more of those cows."

He stepped forward, and lifted Liz, throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatos. She protested, but all he did was shift his grip so that she was hanging from both his shoulders in a fireman's carry rather than folded over only one of his shoulders. "We need to run." He said.

And then he ran.

"Whaaaa!" Liz screamed as he seemed to take off. She had known he was a speed-type character, but this was way beyond what she would have thought was possible even if his Agility was two or three times higher than hers. Even encumbered with her, the acceleration was more like something she'd expect from a car than a bicycle, let alone a running person. Maybe he had the [Run] Skill and some kind of magic?

He spun in place, and she felt a twisting sensation in her stomach as he smoothly landed facing the way he came, looking back.

She heard him click his teeth in annoyance, and her eyes darted around even though she was disoriented, finally latching on Doumeki, had only travelled a third of the distance they had. With Hard-san thrown over his shoulder, Takachan hadn't even gotten a fourth of the distance Shirou had.

They lauched again, and Liz screamed as they rushed back the way they came, the world blurring. Because she wasn't in control, it seemed impossibly fast.

"Here." Shirou ordered, throwing her off his shoulder and pushing her onto Doumeki.

"I'm not a sack of potatos!" Liz protested, but both of them ignored her.

At least Doumeki held her piggy-back style, although her arms were just uselessly draped over his shoulders. She couldn't actually hold on, so it was all up to Doumeki.

Well, she could see straight forward, so when Shirou grabbed Doumeki's head between his hands, she blinked. "What's that gonna do?" She asked.

"Trace on." Shirou muttered, closing his eyes while he ignored her. "Reinforcement."

"Gah." Doumeki grunted. He was shivering, but the hands on his head were like a vice. Finally, with one last great shudder, he stumbled forward as Shirou let him go, before meeting his eye. "Try running now."

"Right." Doumeki said, and then he took off.

"Whoooaaa!" Liz cried, as her hands were completely whipped off his shoulders and dangled straight behind them like streamers, as Doumeki charged forward with her thighs gripped under his arms. She could only see the sky directly, but based on the crazy bouncing landscape in her peripheral vision, she guessed that Doumeki was running almost as fast as Shirou had been when he was carrying her. Even as she screamed, she imagined that meant it was mostly enhancement magic rather than a [Running Skill], then.

When he skidded to a halt, she folded up, flying forwards so that the back of his head slammed into her diaphragm as he buried himself in a crouch. "Ooof!" She gasped, sliding down so that she was at least back to a normal piggyback carry. "Why did you stop?" She complained.

But, she could see for herself as soon as her eyes uncrossed. "Oh." She muttered. It hadn't been at all visible, but the gentle, barely-there slope of the flat top of this mountain abruptly ended in an even steeper cliff than the one they had climbed. She could see the far side of the rim, and it wasn't as deep as before, with a pool of water in one corner and a hut next to a tree and a boulder sitting all by itself, but most importantly, they would have to walk around the edge.

That was what she was thinking when Takachan stopped even more desperately than Doumeki, sliding to a halt at the absolute edge, standing up straight to keep his feet from skidding the last few centimeters that would pitch them over.

He stood stock upright, and slowly, so slowly that Liz could see the dawning horror in his face, but so quickly that Doumeki couldn't grab him, Takachan teetered forward. If he hadn't been holding the paralyzed Hard-san in a fireman's carry over his shoulders, he would have windmilled his arms.

And then he pitched forward, and fell.

Liz sucked in her breath in weird synchronization with Doumeki as they watched their two party members fall, coming apart and pinwheeling crazily, before they both hit the ground with a dull thud, bouncing slightly.

Holding their breaths, they both watched the HP bar over their party member's heads, and in the corner of their HUD, as they decreased, sliding into yellow, crossing into red, and then coming to a halt. They both breathed out in sincere relief.

Then Doumeki spun around.

Shirou was racing towards them.

"They're okay!" Doumeki shouted. "They're fine!"

Shirou sagged in relief, even as he finished running towards them, coming to a halt and calmly looking over the edge of the cliff, before he glanced the way he came.

A dreadful moo sounded, and was answered in kind.

Shirou walked forward, putting himself between Doumeki and Liz and the monsters approaching them.

"Oh no." Liz muttered, unable to do anything. Because, no less than four [Hosting Cattle] were approaching them, already surrounded by a cloud of those wasps.

Shirou steadily walked towards the monsters.

"Hey!" Doumeki said. "What are you going to do?"

Shirou paused, but without turning to look back, before he answered. "I don't know." He replied.

I I I

Emiya Shirou considered his options.

Fleeing was unacceptable. Even if the three of them could skirt the rim and continue to escape, the two party members trapped in the caldera would draw the aggro, and they would be killed. He didn't want to sacrifice those two just to save these two. If he could imagine any other path, he would take it.

Jumping into the caldera and eating the falling damage was a possibility. There was a hut down there that might be a Safe Zone, and otherwise, there might be a path to exit. However, neither option was certain. It was better than doing nothing, but if neither possibility was true, then he couldn't guarantee any of their lives. The [Hosted Wasps] would reach them and they would probably die. He wouldn't be able to protect them.

Fighting and defeating the enemy was the best, most clear path to victory. But how?

Each of these enemies was individually weak, but their high agility and relatively small size made them a problem because they were hard to strike. If they had a chance to aggregate their damage, then a large number of weak attacks would become dangerous.

His [Sword Skills] couldn't hit. They were too long, too broad, and the cooldown was too slow. They could gather faster than he could cut them down. He considered the [Reinforcement Magic] but even so the gap between his agility and theirs was too high. Even if he maxed out the [Accuracy] or [Quickness] of the sword in his hand and heightened his performance that way, even so that would be insufficient.

But no, fundamentally, Emiya Shirou simply lacked the skill to attack so precisely.

So what if he flipped on the Trigger?

No, because she had never fought such small enemies. Compared to giants and dragons, that had been the opposite scenario, her golden sword had been the burning stinger of the insect that went on to overwhelm them. Other knights had been perfectly neutralized according to an [Instinct] that responded to human hearts and chose the best response. None of that was applicable. Neither sword had even once been required in a scenario such as the one before him.

What about that lead-colored giant? No, that was no good either. The image was simply too far from his existence. Compared to that vast slab of rock, his sword was too small, too thin, and too light. Compared to the natural abilities of the greatest demigod, no matter how much he trained, the natural limits of a human were insufficient compared to that huge half-deific body. And the Class Feature of [Mad Enhancement] interfered with his synchronization. It was too far away. But none of that was relevant. In the first place, even if he could reproduce those movements without ripping himself apart, the resulting functionality wouldn't be any different than reproducing her skills. Against these enemies he needed something other than overwhelming power, something more precise.

What about the Lancer? If he grabbed that spear the other guy was holding could he load in the skills that could be used to enact [Protection from Arrows] and knock away the enemies? No. Compared to using her skills without any practice it would be equally damaging to demand his body move with the same speed as that hero of light. And the image with that weapon, which wasn't a sword, was too vague, too hard to imagine as easily and quickly as he needed. Even as an agility-type [Character] he was still laughably far away from that guy. But that was irrelevant. [Protection from Arrows] read the path of an incoming projectile and perfectly intercepted it. Compared to that, these holographic bugs were erratically adjusting their flight paths while approaching according to their own judgment. Even if they were just virtual programs without a real will, they were still more like [Enemies] rather than [Arrows]. All the added difficulty was too much without even the foundation of that demihuman body.

He searched the database. Was there any hero that could strike down these flying enemies without requiring a superhuman body?

Yes, there was.

Among the countless treasures that were uncolored, scattered among them in the database there were weapons that had been uniquely wielded by the Heroic Spirits he had seen before him. And inside that tiny percentage appropriate for the [Trigger On] there was one that matched his search parameters.

He breathed out. He loaded the image of the sword into his circuits and pulled the Trigger. The image and knowledge fired him up and spread out and soaked into his body. His stance adjusted, his shoulders relaxed, his center of gravity sunk and his mind became placid.

With a presence like a calm pool of water, he raised the sword in both hands with a firm but relaxed grip. It was the wrong shape and far too short, but that wasn't a problem. There were no problems because he was serene.

Once, there had been a swordsman who wanted to be great. But, rather than seeking out battles and fighting many other swordsman, he simply sharpened his own skills while secluded like a hermit. Because of the irrationally long sword he favored, this minor figure was easily conflated with another who had used an equally, absurdly long sword; and that one had sought out a great swordsman, and then lost. But that man was not this man. Even if he was confused with and referred to as Sasaki Koujirou, this man had not been Sasaki Koujirou. This was a nameless man without any legend who had meditated at a temple, and set himself a challenge.

Rather than sharpen his skills by cutting down a man, he decided to cut down a sparrow.

Before he could even get the bird inside the reach of his sword, he had to calm his mind and quiet his ego so they wouldn't fly away into the trees. For Shirou, reproducing that absolute lack of judgment and turning his mind into a sword without will was easy. Yes, because when he was born, he put down one thing after another and just kept moving forward without any other goal. Becoming like a wraith that just haunted somewhere without any malice was easy and natural. Frankly speaking, it was uplifting and wonderful to be using it as a positive thing.

He had failed thousands of times. Thousands of times he swung the sword, and all those thousands of times he failed. Below 1% of the time he succeeded, but that was a coincidence where the sparrow had made a tremendous mistake, rather than it being his achievement. So even those rare successes were honestly failures. So, he had to discard frustration and swing his sword for the first time every time, letting all previous failures float away like a straw thrown into a river. Hadn't Shirou done exactly the same thing? Night after night, synchronizing his mind and creating the circuit, and after a long effort, failing time after time to accomplish even the most basic thing? Yes, that was exactly the same.

His mind was serene. His heart was calm. His breathing was deep and placid. He raised the sword, and without expecting even one result, he swung it.

A sparrow could feel the wind parting in front of the sword and dart aside, so that to strike it down with that long sword had required a grand mental state that could bend space by simply imaging and equally accepting multiple possible paths at the same time.

But compared to real sparrows, the agility of these holographic bugs was lower. They had no ability to float on and read the wind, so they possessed no warning that allowed them to dodge.

His sword whipped around like a stick in the rapids, which darted back and forth among the river rocks without ever once striking even one as it was carried bobbing downstream. But each time his sword swung, without any ego, surprise, or satisfaction, his sword passed through one of those enemies. There were exceptions to that rule. By far the most difficult part was continuously adjusting the imagined sword to match the shorter and straighter blade these fake hands actually held. But each miss was because his image slipped and grew too long and curved, not because his aim was too slow.

Space contracted into the reach of his sword even as time expanded into eternity. He neither counted nor remembered. His universe was bounded as what he could cut with his blade.

Even as he emptied his mind, he emptied the universe. It was neither an eternity nor a single breath, but in a meditative state he naturally synchronized with the world and his image of perfect serenity was pushed onto his surroundings. He breathed calmly, his sword held in guard before him as he waited without any unnecessary thoughts in his mind.

I I I

She couldn't believe it, even though she had watched it happen.

Shirou had walked forward, and then stopped, standing calmly with his back to them, without moving. Then he had equipped his sword and held it up, and in so doing, he… changed, somehow.

It was like he turned invisible, even though she could see him just fine.

But then, the instant the first [Hosted Wasp] came inside his range, he swung his sword, and cut it in unerringly cut it in half just like that.

It was completely impossible to tell what he was doing. Each and every motion was surprising like she was seeing it for the first time. It was hypnotizing.

So when he stopped, she blinked, surprised.

"That was all of them." Doumeki said in an awed and amazed voice. "I lost count in the thirties, but that must have been all of them."

It hadn't even occurred to her to count.

"Hey!" Doumeki said, stepping forward, still with her draped over his shoulders. "Shirou! That was incredible!"

Shirou turned calmly to face them, with an indescribably serene expression on his face. "Oh? Who is this?" He asked. Even though it was naturally his voice, it didn't sound like him at all.

"Shirou?" Doumeki said, his hand drooping slightly as he was uncertain. "Are you… is something wrong?"

"Shirou, huh." Shirou said as if he was simply musing about a stranger. "Isn't that… me?" With a shudder like someone poured water over him, he crouched, and when he stood again, his body language was completely gone. Whatever spell had been cast was broken.

"Sorry about that." He apologized, with an embarrassed voice. "I got into the zone so much, that I lost track of where I was."

"It's all right." Doumeki said, slightly confused, before he shook his head, which incidentally took Liz along for the ride. "You were amazing!"

"Thank you." Shirou murmured, but Doumeki was already turned away.

"Takachan!" Doumeki shouted.

Below, the Party Leader looked up from where he was leaning Hard-san against the hut, glancing over his shoulder and then turning around to stand completely and look at the shouting Doumeki.

"Shirou won!" Doumeki shouted, jubilant.

Takachan held out his thumb with his hand up, and then accessed his menu.

A PM popped up in front of them.

[PM  
From: Takachan To: Party  
That's great! What do we do now?]

After thinking about it, Doumeki paused. "I don't know." He admitted, although only Liz could hear him.

I I I

In the end, they took advantage of the fact that Doumeki had insisted on carrying four hundred meters of rope, and lowered Liz down to the bottom. Doumeki and Shirou had climbed down one after the other, leaving the rope hanging from where they had secured it as an exit.

With the paralyzed Liz and Hard-san propped up against the side of the hut, and with Doumeki, Takachan, and Shirou arranged facing them, they had a party meeting. Even though she hated not being able to move, since they were inside a [Safe Zone] next to a hut, a tension that she hadn't even been worried about released.

Takachan was the first to speak, and what he said was a surprise to all of them. "Shirou-san. It's already almost one o'clock."

Liz realized she was quite hungry, but she didn't know what he was getting at, until she realized. Shirou-san had said that he intended to join the [Second Floor Boss Raid], but there was no way he could do that now, was there?

Indeed, Shirou sat there like a motionless lump of iron. Even though he wasn't moving at all, just from his posture it was clear that he was deeply conflicted.

Finally, he said, "I don't want to leave you here."

"We'll be fine." Doumeki said encouragingly. "After all, when the paralysis wears off, we'll just climb the rope and be out of here."

Shirou looked aside. "The paralysis lasts for two hours, and the [Hosting Cattle] reset their spawns after fifteen minutes." He looked up at the rim they came from. "Since they don't move on their own and only follow the monster they're partied with, with the [Infected Taurus] gone, those four are going to be waiting up there." Then he glanced at the edge of the pool of water, which curved into a cave that hung underneath the lip of the cavern. "And the cave monsters on the Second Floor are three levels higher than the plains monsters on average." In other words, if they tried to escape the way they came, then they would get mobbed, and if they tried to leave through a secret passage, they would get ambushed by an enemy they couldn't handle.

"Oh." Takachan said heavily. "I didn't know that."

"Shirou-san." Liz said, with a low voice. When everyone turned to look at her, she felt a little pressured, so she glanced down even though she couldn't move her head. "You've already helped us so much, so do what you need to. We'll be fine on our own."

Even though he was wearing a mask, she could tell he was smiling at her with a conflicted expression. "Liz… I don't know what to do."

"I'm wondering about that rock over there." Hard-san said. He obviously wanted to jerk his arm up to point over his shoulder with his thumb, but since he was also still paralyzed, that was impossible. "And I'm wondering if there's an NPC in the hut that could give us advice."

For a moment he was frozen in place, and then with a snort Shirou stood up and walked into the hut.

After a little while, Takachan spoke. "You guys… I'm sorry it's turned out like this."

"We chose this too." Hard-san replied simply, and there was nothing more to say. It was quiet, until the door of the hut opened again.

"What a tall NPC." Takachan muttered.

"He's built like a mountain." Doumeki agreed.

After a pause, she heard the pad pad of bare feet, followed by the sound of Shirou's boots after a moment of hesitation. Since she was facing completely the opposite way, she had no idea what was going on beyond that. "What just happened?" Liz complained.

After a beat, Doumeki answered. "An NPC built like a Schwarzenegger in a gi has led Shirou over to beside that large boulder."

A voice Liz didn't recognize shouted something. It went like this. "Shashashasha-shaaa!"

Then the sound of bare feet walking back towards her, followed by the creak of the hut door opening, bare feet walking through, and then the creak of the door closing again.

After a long pause, Shirou walked over as well. Takachan covered his snort better than Doumeki did, but Liz didn't see why until Shirou was kneeling in the circle again. She didn't do such an admirable job of containing her chuckles as they did.

On the heroic white mask, a cartoon of whiskers had been drawn on both his cheeks.

After a pause to let them settle down, Shirou spoke. "So until I break the rock, I can't leave the mountain."

"That answers the question of whether you're going to stay or go, then." Hard-san dryly replied.

Shirou looked down, frowning. "I suppose it does." He clearly didn't like it. Finally, he sighed. "Well, I guess there's nothing for it."

He stood up, and walked back towards the rock.

"Hey." Liz said, demanding the attention of her party members. "It's not the case that either of you forgot how to cast the [Cure Paralysis] spell, is it?"

Frankly speaking, she wasn't sure if it would have been better if that was the case, but since it wasn't, all she could do was sigh in aggravation.

I I I

Shirou walked over to the rock, considering what he was going to do.

First things first. Leaving this place was forbidden until he broke this rock.

[PM  
From: Shirou To: Ilya  
Ilya, I've gotten caught up in something. I can't make it to the meeting.]

He tapped send, and then focused his attention on the problem before him.

It was a really big rock. Well, it wasn't that being big or small was that much of a concern, but first he had to understand the situation.

He breathed out, flipping on his circuits. Earlier had been strange. His prana was still flowing oddly. But he couldn't worry about that now. Instead he focused on the problem in front of him.

Placing a palm on the rock, he scanned it with Structural Grasp. "Trace… On." He muttered.

The wireframe built up in his mind, and suddenly details leapt out, fleshing it out so to every last line of code, and more. From the instant it had spawned eight days ago until now, every last compositional data and change in state was recorded. If had had been used in any way or had belonged to anyone in that time, Shirou would have been instantly able to tell, but instead this rock had just sat there without anything happening. The reason that such absolute data had been returned to his assessment was simple.

From the beginning, this rock had been created from the concept it would be made into swords.

It had the max durability score for its item type. If it was any higher, it would loop around to return a negative number, which would be interpreted as an [Immortal Object] by the Cardinal System.

But if it was broken, rather than disappearing and shattering into nothingness, instead it would spawn [Rock Fragments]. And if those fragments were inspected by someone with a high enough score in both [Appraise] and [Blacksmith], then they would be automatically renamed as [Telluric Basalt], and their type would change from [Environmental Items] to [Materials].

Shirou chuckled softly. After all this, it turned out that Hard-san was right.

There were no weak-spots. Unlike a real rock, there weren't any shear planes from imperfections in the crystal. It was perfectly homogenous because it was shapeless inside, even if on the outside it had an appearance and a texture. Unlike in real life there was nothing really inside the wireframe of the things he Grasped, it was built up from triangles with images on one side. He couldn't simply split it by striking along a weak plane from those imperfections.

What was it the NPC had said? "Split this rock using only thy palms."

Shirou raised his arms and held them out in front of himself, examining his holographic hands, and flexed his fingers carefully, before extending them straight into what was called the sword-hand in karate. He opened his circuits again, and even if he was still reacting strangely to before, that wasn't a bad thing, it wasn't a problem. He [Reinforced] his [Strength] and [Agility] all the way to the limits. He had never reinforced his hands as weapons before, since even during that time, it was more productive to grab a pipe and use that instead. But that wasn't a problem, either. For Emiya Shirou, using himself as a weapon was the most natural thing in the world.

In a little less than two hours, the paralysis would wear off Hard-san and Liz and he would escort them back to [Urbus]. It would be more efficient if he could be finished by then.

His hand whipped out like a swinging sword. He examined the results and nodded to himself.

Yes, this wouldn't be a problem at all.


	22. 5:5 LD 1

His [Sword Skills] couldn't hit. They were too long, too broad, and the cooldown was too slow. They could gather faster than he could cut them down. He considered the [Reinforcement Magic] but even so the gap between his agility and theirs was too high. Even if he maxed out the [Accuracy] or [Quickness] of the sword in his hand and heightened his performance that way, even so that would be insufficient.

But no, fundamentally, Emiya Shirou simply lacked the skill to attack so precisely.

So what if he flipped on the Trigger?

No, because she had never fought such small enemies. Compared to giants and dragons, that had been the opposite scenario, her golden sword had been the burning stinger of the insect that went on to overwhelm them. Other knights had been perfectly neutralized according to an [Instinct] that responded to human hearts and chose the best response. None of that was applicable. Neither sword had even once been required in a scenario such as the one before him.

He searched the database. Was there any hero that could strike down these flying enemies without a superhuman body?

…No, there was no need to overthink it like that. He aborted the search. In the first place, that sort of glorious and overwhelming power was all he needed.

He reached into himself, and like he was pulling it free from the stone, he moved it from the fake world within him to the fake world around him.

The world slowed. The bugs froze in place, twitching forward with jerking movements. Like everything was underwater, his eyes told him everything was moving slowly. No, that was incorrect.

As he poured the sword into the world and it appeared in his hand, it was more like the world stopped spinning to watch, like the gears that turned the world were jamming up.

He drew it forth, and with a loud roar, named the mighty power that would destroy everything that opposed him.

As the world turned white as he submerged everything in holy light, even so, it went dark. Everything was instantly black as if a switch had been flipped and the world had been turned off around him.

[Connection Terminated]

I I I

Lying in a hospital bed, the heart rate monitor beeped regularly as Emiya Shirou laid trapped in the world of Aincrad. However, not just the heart rate monitor, but also a computer displaying a bandwidth connection map was in the room, conveying information that was possibly even more critical.

It spiked, launching all the way up to the top, and that line stayed smashed against the top of the graph, until abruptly it went all the way to zero.

Since the grace window allowing two hours to transfer players into appropriate facilities had closed, the firmware in the NerveGear assumed it was a disconnection attempt and reacted appropriately.

The heart rate monitor became erratic, and then stopped, a steady electronic keen as it announced the death of Emiya Shirou.

(DEAD END)

(click)

LION DOJO

Take the Strange Advi—(CLICK)

I I I

Standing with a noble expression with eyes calmly closed, the blonde king had her hands resting calmly on the hilt of the shinai before her. The simple white kimono across her shoulders and the blue hakama hanging from her waist were raiment appropriate for royalty simply because she was wearing them.

She opened her eyes, and spoke. "Shirou, do you understand your mistake this time?" She asked with a kind voice. Compared to the roar of a wild tiger the sad disappointment was three times more distressing for him.

So, after considering it seriously, Emiya Shirou could only sigh in frustration. "No, I don't. Maybe blasting them with Caliburn was overkill, but I don't understand how that would trigger a game over."

"I understand." Saber said with dignity, before explaining. "You see, the internet is like a series of tubes. When you recreated my sword and jammed it in, it was too thick for the tubes to handle. And when you shot your prana into the tubes as well, that was simply too much and it was like they were shattered by your power gushing forward like water hammer. So you plugged it up with the, your thing that you Traced."

"I don't get it." Shirou said. His confusion was honest and without guile.

For some reason he didn't understand, Saber blushed as she glanced aside, before continuing to speak. "Well, you see, your power is simply too much for the internet, so you need to treat it more gently."

"Stop flirting with such a bad metaphor!" Yowling like an angry cat, the Master was interrupted by the Disciple. Without any regard for anyone's dignity, her flying kick connected with Shirou's head and sent him flailing to the ground.

Standing over him like a tiger that had pounced on an antelope, a leg that was bare all the way up the thigh pushed him into the ground. Dressed like an elementary schooler and with her shirt labeled [1-A] even though she was a full grown adult, even so, somehow she managed to look down at him even like that. Because she was literally standing over him, that was probably how such a thing was achieved.

"Compared to the streamlined objects that are used as items internally by the Cardinal System, what you Trace is like a humongous CAD file with a point cloud with billions of elements and annotations and thousands of reversion states that needs interpreting!" The Tiger roared. "Even if this is a near-future cyberpunk story, instantly loading something that has to be measured in at least exabytes into the game is way too much for the computer to handle! You'll crash everything!" She pointed an accusing finger as she casually added something completely unrelated you could even call the real objection…maybe. "Plus if you can use something that OP you'll win all the fights forever whenever you want and then the whole story arc will be boring!"

"Yes." Saber nodded with perfect dignity. "It is as the First Disciple says."

Shirou frowned as he stood up, and then he voiced his objection. "But Fujinee is someone who even spilled cola on a computer, so how can I trust her words?" As the person who hadn't been able to fix the problem even using Structural Grasp, naturally he was suspicious that she was talking so confidently about something like that.

Ignoring the irritated roar in the background, Shirou focused on the girl standing in front of him.

Her head had slowly dipped down, and with a stern expression belied by her soft voice, Saber spoke. "Shirou. Even if I don't really understand it myself, it's painful if you reject my help, so please, put more effort into protecting yourself."

"Saber…" Shirou frowned, before grabbing her shoulder with his right hand and pulling her to his side. She made a sound like eep that was quickly drowned out as that illustration of a mountain appeared behind them and the sound effect of crashing waves began. "Saber!" Shirou shouted, "If that won't work then I'll just imagine something that will! So believe in me!"

"Shirou!" Saber said, clutching the shirt over his chest with her right hand. Her blushing face turned from his face to look out into the distance before them as her expression grew resolved. "Yes! I will!"

Like a dramatic sunset, the doors closed on the strange dojo.


	23. 6:1 Forest Goblin

[You Have Died.]

That was the only feature. Everything else was absolute darkness in every direction with no exceptions or interruptions. Just that blood-red floating announcement. He was sitting casually on the floor with his back slumped, but even though he could feel a smooth and featureless plane like smooth glass underneath him, it wasn't visible at all. When he tried walking or running, or even just turning in place, either he stayed exactly where he was facing the same direction, or the announcement perfectly floated in place in front of him. In every direction the scenery was perfect darkness. If it wasn't for the fact that his character model was still illuminated, that he could still see himself, then he would have thought he was blind. He could even access his menu.

[Private Messages] had been disabled, however.

"Dammit." The player named [AAAA], and called Yona by friends, sighed, as bitterness gave way to resignation.

He had started angry. When he had appeared, he had shouted, cursing Kayaba and the world. Not just the [World of Aincrad], but the [Real World]. It was an old and miserable habit, that black, irrational hatred at reality, and when it welled up he'd screamed it at the world.

After that he'd cried.

But now he just felt wrung-out. Not just like a cloth rag that had been twisted up tight to squeeze out those tears, and then relaxed. It was like his blood had been wrung out in that twisting, and when the torque had been released, his veins were hollow because his blood had been wrung out. He felt as empty as this holographic body really was.

Now he just sat, caught between uncertainty, hope, despair, and fear. It was like his own emotions were spinning around him in the darkness; they were what had caught him up and twisted his guts up into twine, until everything leaked out. Even now those emotions still swirled around him, but for now, it was like they were orbiting him like moons, dragging on him but somehow completely separate from him.

He had operated under the assumption that Kayaba Akihiko had been serious when he said [Character Death] would equally mean [Player Death]. He didn't know all that much about the NerveGear, but even if it wasn't strong enough to fry his brain, it could probably just turn off his heart, right? Since it could stop his brain from controlling his muscles? Thinking like that, he decided to believe in Kayaba.

Was it fortunate that he wouldn't die? Or unfortunate that this hell of sensory deprivation was what he received? If the game wasn't cleared, then he'd go insane.

He hoped Cuvie was okay.

[AAAA] sighed again, melancholy and sad. But, compared to so everything else in his whole damn life, there weren't any regrets, not this time. No, that wasn't quite it. Definitely he wanted to try again, he regretted the outcome, but he wouldn't have done anything differently, it would have been a gamble that the [RNG] would deliver a different result. In the end, he regretted only his luck, because he hadn't made any mistakes.

"Would you like to live on?"

Hearing that soft and innocent voice speaking, he jerked in place, spinning around as he stumbled, awkwardly climbing to his feet, his hand going to his hip, where he had already materialized his sword.

He faltered in place, hesitating at what he saw.

A little girl, with round face and large, expressive eyes, a hair cut like a princess with bangs that flowed long down her back. Her thin limbs and narrow body were covered by a severe white kimono cinched shut. It wasn't the heavy layers of a traditional princess or the festival clothes of a modern girl, but rather, the conservative dress of a magistrate of old with all the color bleached away, leaving it pure white.

She was floating in place like a ghost.

"What?" He finally asked, his voice thick.

"Would you like to live on?" The girl repeated. She had the voice of a little girl, the face of a little girl, the body of a little girl, but the completely dead expression on her face and the totally uninterested delivery of that line were definitely not little-girl-like.

"Who are you?" He asked, face tightening. "Do you work for Kayaba?"

"I am the Mental State Assessment Program Number Zero-Zero-One." the girl intoned. "As a player interface I am named [Yui]."

"Yui-chan, is it." Yona muttered, reflexively sliding his glasses up his face. He barely even needed glasses in the [Real World] and they were a complete affectation in the [Game World], but he had grown accustomed to using [fiddling with his glasses] as a way to buy a little time and prepare his reaction. "Why did Kayaba send you? What's going to happen to me?"

"You have been selected." Yui said in that same simple manner. "Although you have surrendered the rights of a [Player], you have earned the rights of extended functionality. If you accept, you will be given the role of play-testing expansion patches and delivering other value to the development team. If you decline, your functionality will be terminated." After a perfectly measured pause that let that sink in, she concluded, "Participation is completely voluntary."

"So I can either work for Kayaba or die, huh?" He sneered, shaking his head as he looked down with a condescending look on his face. "Either I betray my friends and help the enemy or I get killed!? Well, that's really quite the choice, what a miserable choice, exactly like what I'd expect from an asshole like Kayaba, huh!?" By the end, he was shouting.

The AI waited patiently as his ragged breathing subsided as his anger ebbed, and he returned somewhat to normal.

"We have determined clarification is necessary." The computer masquerading as a little girl told him. "First clarification. Participation is completely voluntary. The consequences of choosing are provided for you to accurately decide without complaints, but the decision must be made by you. Second clarification. Beta testing is necessary to maintain game balance. Participating in testing of content intended for player use will not betray other players. Third clarification. Extended functionality is being offered by the [Cardinal System], not [Project Manager Kayaba Akihiko]."

"That can't be true." He said. His voice was a whisper because his stomach had fallen out and couldn't support his lungs, a ragged whisper of someone who didn't dare to believe. "There's no way… I can't believe that something like that could happen. You're saying that the game itself wants me to… what? Make it so Cuvie and everybody else can beat it? There's no way that's the case." He was shaking his head.

"The [Cardinal System] is the engine that guarantees the game is balanced." Yui explained calmly, perfectly without emotion. "From the beginning, games are designed to be beaten by players. The purpose of the [Cardinal System] is to deliver a challenging and satisfying experience. As a result of the implementation strategy, introduction of expanded rulesets cannot be performed in the normal manner. Therefore the [Cardinal System] will perform testing in a nonstandard manner."

"Shit." Yona muttered without any heat, almost as emotionless and flat as the simulacrum floating in front of him.

"Is further clarification required?" The AI intoned.

Yona shook his head numbly.

The AI nodded, but without moving any other way at all, a new selection holographic appeared between them, a big bright blue rectangle floating right at chest level in front of Yona. The words and choice on it were very simple.

[Would you like to live on?]

[Yes / No]

He reached up and made his selection.

I I I

His model disintegrated. His body wore away like it was evaporating, breaking down as pixels were chipped away from his limbs until his form was gone and he was floating in perfect darkness. Uniformly, the world lightened. Everything was still featureless, but it grew brighter and brighter, as the darkness passed through grays and became white.

Pillars of color spread out from a point infinitely far away, spreading out like a waterfall all around him, like a pipe of light was opened and poured over his head. But, rather than the lights splashing down on him, it was like he was thrown down and was falling towards the world. He would have blinked in surprise if he had eyes, because he recognized it exactly as the [Logging In] animation.

He landed with a bump.

He shook himself, and glanced around, shaking his head in disorientation. He was in some kind of forest, sitting at the edge of a small meadow. The ground was gently sloped, but the trees growing up around him prevented him from learning anything about the geography even 10 meters away.

He tried to speak, but all that came out was a croak, too guttural to be called a chirp but too high-pitched to be called a growl.

He blinked in surprise, and did a double take when he raised his arm.

It was a thin and scraggly thing, an arm of just a few wiry muscles wrapped around long bones and wrapped in thick and scabby skin, that was a dull green color.

When he checked, his legs were equally gangly and thin, weak-looking things terminating in gnarled feet with crooked toes. His torso was barrel-shaped, but small proportionate to the size of his body. There was no way to see his reflection, but when he felt his face, he found his head was almost perfectly round, with a pug nose and jagged fangs rather than teeth.

He was clothed in tattered, mismatched rags stitched together into something like a cloak, hanging off his shoulders like a bag, while other bags were cinched shut around his ankles as crude shoes. A crude belt made from grass rope was cinched around his waist, and a glossy black axe hung from his right hip.

He couldn't talk. He could imagine the words, and there was no problem with making noise, but there was only the most meager connection between what he wanted to say and what actually came out. His vocal cords were simply incapable of anything more complicated than one long, drawn-out syllable, like typing with a numb stump of a limb rather than a proper hand.

When he opened his menu, the layout, the placement of skills and attributes was exactly the same. However, the contents of his menu were completely different.

The very first thing he noticed was that he wasn't named [AAAA] anymore. Instead, his character name was rendered as [Forest Goblin] with the same font and text style as a monster-character. His [Attributes] weren't appropriate for an eleventh-level speed type like he had been, but instead, both [Strength] and [Agility] were set at 10, and his secondary attributes were also all appropriate for a level 2 character.

Other than his attributes, looking at his [Active Equipment] or [Equipped Equipment], (he didn't know what the official name for the little cartoon of the player and their stuff was)… all he had were the [Flint Axe] that was on his hip, as well as the [Crude Cloth Boots], the [Rough Rope Belt], and the [Tattered Sack Poncho] equipped as his clothing items. Ironically, despite their terrible stats and underwhelming names, their durability was massive. He hadn't noticed anything else on his new avatar, so he wasn't surprised that he didn't have anything else listed in his [Active Equipment].

Of the submenus, first he opened [Quests]. Everything had been reset. He didn't even have the default maps of the [Starting City] that were automatically added. All he had was the outline of this one forest clearing, and the place name, area, and even floor were all listed only as [?].

The [Friends] and [Chat] icons were grayed out, they couldn't be opened. Opening the [Settings] menu just showed the same two options he'd had as a player, with [Logout] still disabled, which wasn't surprising at all. Still, with an angry swipe, he pushed back to the main menu, and opened the [Inventory] screen.

As a player, there were five submenus available from the [Inventory] menu off the [Main Menu]. Four had been there since he'd logged in, and the fifth had been added during the [Official Launch].

[Equipment] and [Usable Item] tabs simply weren't there. It wasn't that they were grayed out and inaccessible like the [Friends] and [Chat] icons were, they just weren't listed in the options. But, since [Materials] was still present, it wasn't like the three [Item Tabs] had been removed, it was only the two for equipment and consumables like [Recording Crystals] and [Food] that were gone.

The [Materials] tab, for vendor trash that dropped from mobs and crafting mats, was empty.

That fifth tab, [Spells], was grayed out. So he couldn't even check if he still had the magic he'd learned, although he thought it was probably unlikely. Still, compared to the tabs that were completely deleted, having the [Spells] tab only grayed out implied something different.

The fourth, [Skills], was a completely different story. It opened right up, but all the skills he'd had including the [One-Handed Sword] that he'd worked so hard on, they were all gone. He was back to only being able to equip two active skills, just like a regular second-level character, so that was annoying but not really surprising. But in exchange, he saw a skill he didn't recognize.

No, it wasn't just his second active skill. Of the five skills in his [Skill List], each with exactly one point in them, the only one he recognized was his first active skill.

[One-handed Axe (Active)]  
[Fighting with a one-handed axe. Slow, but high base damage and knockback.]

[Forestry (Active)]  
[The ability to harvest trees into logs. Higher ranks can harvest more difficult trees. Efficiency of harvesting is also a function of skill rank. Secondary effects include a bonus to mapping efficacy in wooded areas. Unlocked from Axe Skills].

[Sawing (Inactive)]  
[Turning raw logs into lumber. Skill rank caps the difficulty of logs that can be affected. The number of lumber yielded per log is a function of skill rank. Unlocked from Axe Skills].

[Carpentry (Inactive)]  
[Construction of buildings and structures from lumber. Efficiency of lumber use is a function of skill rank. Each structure is erected according to a blueprint item. Skill rank caps the complexity of blueprint that can be used. Unlocked from Sawing.]

[Architecture (Inactive)]  
[Drawing utility to create blueprints for buildings and structures that can be assembled with the [Carpentry], [Masonry], and [Ironworking] skills. Unlocked from any of [Sawing], [Stonecutting], and [Smelting], but the blueprint can only utilize materials for skills the player personally has.]

So… he reached to push his glasses up his face, only to realize that his avatar didn't have any equipped, and his hand bumped into what was apparently a comically long goblin nose before that realization halted his rising hand, and that sent him to irritable muttering, but his inability to do anything but chirp like an unusually large bird made him squawk in frustration. Eventually he calmed down, and figured it out.

So the [Beta Test] that was being described was for something like the [Construction] module that would allow Players to build their own houses and stuff, huh? Well, that would certainly be convenient.

For now, he sat up, and brushed off his thighs, even though the stringy green sticks he had for legs didn't have anything like pants equipped.

So if he had [Forestry] equipped as an active skill, he should be able to [Harvest Logs] or something, right? He waddled to the edge of the clearing, and looked at a tree speculatively. It was probably some kind of pine tree to judge from the needles and the bark pattern, but he didn't know all that much about trees, assuming that the designers had gone for realism in the first place. Usually as part of the scenery [Trees] were [Immortal Objects] that couldn't be hurt.

Well, that was fast to check. He equipped his axe, and with a fierce cry like "Whark!", he swung his axe, activating a [Sword Skill] and burying the blade in the trunk. There was no indication that he had done anything wrong, and especially, the purple hexagon announcing it was useless since it was an [Immortal Object] didn't appear at all. So he swung, foregoing the [Skill], setting into a rhythm like he was pounding on a drum. Because his holographic arms didn't get tired, it was a little boring, but not exhausting at all. A chipped icon appeared in the bark to indicate damage appeared quickly too, which indicated he was doing the right thing.

Eventually, the tree made a large "crack" sound, and started tipping over. More precisely, it started tipping towards the damage icon, which meant the whole tree trunk was tipping towards him. With more terrified wharking, he took off running diagonally away from the tree, glancing over his shoulder. But, rather than crushing him, once the trunk reached a thirty degree angle it flashed, exploding into pixels just like a defeated monster.

[Tree Felled] appeared as a popup, laid out in exactly the same format as a victory announcement from winning a fight. The XP reward was pathetic, but it was a pleasant surprise there even was one. More important was the increase in the [Forestry] skill and the item he received, which was [Pine Logs]. He waddled over to see if there was a collectable drop that he had to pick up, but apparently it was automatically added to his inventory from the pseudo-victory popup. He opened his [Inventory Menu] and navigated to [Materials] on a hunch and was pleased that he was correct. The [Pine Logs] were listed there. He blinked, squinting. It was getting hard to read. According to the menu, it weighed about as much as he would have guessed that logs would weigh in the real world: hundreds of kilograms. There was no way he could carry that much weight without his movement speed dropping to zero, but he could move just fine.

He looked around. It was getting dark, moving into the dusk hours. The transition between day and night happened unnaturally quick in Aincrad compared to Japan, so it always felt like it was sneaking up on him.

He grumbled at that, sitting down in the clearing to navigate the menu. First, he removed [Forestry] from his [Active Skills] list so that he could make [Sawing] active instead.

He had no idea how to actually saw the log though.

There wasn't a dialogue prompt or a special crafting screen that was anywhere in his menu. He couldn't open anything up from his [Sawing] skill and he didn't know how or if he could drag-and-drop items between menu screens even if it did open something up.

Finally, with annoyed grumbling, he tried materializing the object, and a stack of [Pine Logs] appeared, dropping a few inches with in an intimidating rattling thud because of their huge mass, before sitting quietly in place.

Thinking about his [Sawing] skill just like he would think about his weapons skill when attacking, he raised his axe and experimentally hit one of the logs. Nothing happened, so after a suspicious pause, he decided to see it through to the end. He kept hitting the log until it vanished just like a defeated monster, or a felled tree. Once again, he got a popup that told him that he had [Pine Boards] in his inventory.

He was nodding in satisfaction when he heard the first wolf howl.

He froze, glancing over his shoulders nervously, worried. Stronger monsters spawned at night, and it wasn't like he could actually take on anything strong as a solo player with such a weak character in the first place. Nervously, he dematerialized the logs back into his inventory. There weren't any monsters around he could see, but he should still be careful.

He was thinking about that when the wolf attacked him from behind.

He screamed, a high-pitched squeal, as the wolf grabbed him by the throat from behind and shook him around, shaking him like a chewtoy. His HP went all the way to zero, and only then did it fling him aside. He bounced once, completely disoriented, and then exploded into pixels.

[You have died]

A breathless moment as he sourly recognized the irony, and then

[Respawning in 30]

The countdown clock popped up beneath the blood-red announcement in a normal system gray color, calmly ticking down. When it hit zero again, he fell forward from floating in the completely featureless darkness to drop into the same clearing as before (there was a stump item on the edge), but at least the wolf was gone.

He was struggling with the [Carpentry] skill when he heard the wolf howl again. This time he managed to see it in the corner of his eye when it leaped for him, and he didn't think it was funny at all that the monster, with the blood-red indicator of a mob too over-leveled for him to challenge, was named something like [Griefer Wolf]. Also the epiphany that he needed to create the blueprint before using carpentry hit him about the same time he hit the ground after it flung him aside.

[Respawning]

Making the [Architecture] skill active did make it activate an additional popup window, just like selecting [PM] opened up a text editor for composing a message. However, what was created was a simple 3D CAD package. He recognized some of the tools from doll-modeling games, but he had barely figured out how to extrude a wall up from the ground before the wolf got him.

[Respawning]

He took off running immediately, eyes flipping between the drawing utility and where his feet were leading him as he sprinted through the dark. The wolf intercepted him when he had jumped over a stream, leaping out of nowhere to catch him with its teeth. It didn't even wait until he landed before it started savagely shaking him, and he landed face-down in the water before he died.

[Respawning]

With a triumphant whark, he finished drawing the crude four-walled box structure, and outputted the blueprint item. He was relieved he didn't need to consume paper or ink or anything like in order to do so; instead all he had to do was click a [Print] option and it went to some kind of compiler or something. The first time he tried it had refused to print because he had made one wall float in the air above the ground by accident.

He didn't figure out how to use the [Carpentry] skill before the wolf got him.

[Respawning]

At the same time the wolf howled, he shouted triumphantly when he successfully materialized his fort.

His good cheer immediately died when he realized it materialized in front of him, not around him. Because it didn't have a door or anything like that, he had absolutely no way to get inside.

[Respawning]

He didn't have enough lumber, so he had to chop down more trees first, setting to work at a feverish pace.

[Respawning]

He desperately made the logs into lumber.

[Respawning]

He hadn't saved the blueprint before printing it, so he had to draw it all other again. On the plus side he figured out that the zero coordinate was the position of the one using the [Carpentry] skill, so he made the walls surround the origin of the coordinate system.

[Respawning]

Huddled in the dark, listening to the frustrated, terrifying baying of wolves that lurked beyond the four haphazard fortress walls that protected him, he muttered grimly. He'd played games like this before. Losing was NOT fun if it meant that he had to experience that kind of fear and pain like a wolf jumping out of darkness behind him each time. But he'd played games like this before. He had a sense of what he could do, of what could be done.

Quietly, one lone [Forest Goblin] swore he would catch every [Griefer Wolf] in a lava trap, without any exceptions.


	24. 6:2 Call me Mistress

"Ok!" Ilya called, stepping back and returning to the guard position. "Now I switch, and it's your turn, Shirou!"

"Right." Shirou replied, darting forward to attack with a sword swing.

With a chittering sound effect, the [Giant Centipede] whipped its body around like it was shaking its head, feet wiggling like reciprocating saws, and then reared it up, its mouthparts clicking together as its glowing red eyes stared down at Shirou.

"Now you switch!" Ilya scolded him from behind.

"But…" Shirou grit his teeth, and swallowed his complaint. "Switch!" He shouted.

"I've got it." Kirito said lightly, darting forward from the side to swing his sword along a flat plane, digging into the side of the monster, before stepping around, turning his back to the enemy as he made more distance, only to reverse the direction in a smooth motion as he lunged forward, his sword glowing balefully as he charged forward with [Reaver]. "Okay!" Kirito shouted. "Switch!"

"Right!" Asuna said, juking diagonally with a sidestep. She breathed in, and then when breathing out, released her whole body, shooting her sword forward like a bullet, spearing the monster nearly instantly, forcing the enemy's HP into the yellow zone. In the same instant she made contact, she shouted, and the prana built up in the sword released, jetting out in a searing line of heat. She used the recoil to return to a fighting stance, shouting "Switch!" as she did so. Kirito was impressed; the temperature and speed had both gone up, but the real proof of her improvement was the crisp and controlled shape of the discharged prana.

"My turn!" Ilya shouted, recklessly sprinting forward. Her headlong charge twisted like a pendulum as she swung her sword. The center of rotation was between her and her weapon, so she sidestepped even as the sword came around glowing as she used a [Wide Horizontal] to attack the monster. "Now, switch with me, Shirou!"

"On it." Shirou mildly replied. He leapt forward, stabbing the [Monstrous Centipede] where the throat would have been, ripping the sword up through its head, pulling it free as it reached the top of its arc. It lunged forward to bite him, so he sidestepped, parrying the serrated mouthparts easily, before twisting the sword so that edge was facing the enemy instead of the flat, and he swung it on a downwards diagonal.

Since the enemy was rearing back again, he interrupted its next long with a rising slash with the weak side of the sword as he brought it up to a high guard position. The damage was low, but his attack had interrupted the monster's counter. From there, he swung the sword diagonally down and then across, pressing the huge centipede back.

"Are you ever going to switch, Shirou?" Ilya asked.

His concentration broken, Shirou grunted, stepping back three times, to make five meters of distance. Although he relaxed his stance and stood up slightly straighter his gaze didn't leave the monster and he kept his sword in a guard position. "Switch." He said.

"I've got it." Kirito said, stepping forward again. Because the enemy was already deep in the red from Shirou's attack, his flowing three-hit combo was enough to finish it. As it dispersed into pixels, the group relaxed slightly, although Ilya made an annoyed sound that he didn't think they were supposed to hear. Asuna probably didn't know and Kirito wasn't sure whether Shirou cared or not, but he'd gotten into a competition with Ilya to land the Last Attack. She was more aggressive, but he had a better ability to time his participation in Switching. In a sense that was her selfishness as a Kill Stealer coming back to haunt her, but at the same time, Kirito carefully kept that to himself and didn't gloat so he wouldn't get ironically jinxed.

Shirou was already scanning the surroundings for new threats, and Kirito felt slightly guilty that the other boy had beaten him to it. To the east was [Danzac], the main town of the [Third Floor]. Compared to the [Starting City] which was perfectly centered on the [First Floor] and [Urbus] which was slightly to the east of center, [Danzac] was over two thirds of the way from the center of the floor to the eastern tip. This made sense because the topology of the Third Floor was not homogenous. On the east side it was wet hills with rivers and streams, but as it moved westward it dried out and flattened, until here, at the center of the floor, it was desert dry. Crumbly dust was a jagged crust on the earth. [Giant Centipedes] were common ambush monsters that erupted from cracks in the hard dirt, so they had to be on guard.

The Third Floor was the start of a forest arc in the beta test, so the design of the game was clearly diverging.

Kirito sighed, sheathing his sword as he finished an area scan just like Shirou. "Well you're getting better." Kirito said, in what he tried to make an encouraging voice. "This time you actually started getting into a rhythm with us, rather than brutalizing the monster and then waiting for us to react." Fighting together with Shirou was strange. If Ilya was someone that pushed her way to the front of the line, then Shirou was someone who naturally pulled ahead. He had this weird intensity, like he was too strong for the game, but still played seriously.

"Thanks." Shirou said sourly.

"Don't mention it." Kirito said, cheerfully.

"You're in a good mood." Asuna said. It was a little hurtful that she said that so suspiciously.

So he sighed theatrically, drooping in place. "Can't a guy just be happy when good things happen?" Of course, he said it as bait, and at least some of his party members rose admirably to the occasion.

"The mapping is going well." Asuna said thoughtfully, glancing around. As a [Front Liner], she was someone who seriously thirsted after the prestige of finding the [Boss Tower], and then also being the first to reach the [Boss Room]. That was something they had in common, but she was a little more focused then he was.

"With the latest edition of [Argo's Guide], the safety margin of the [Gathering] players has gone way up." Shirou said with a sincere relief, like that was something that involved him personally.

Well, one of his party members rose to the occasion, the other said something about how nice [World Peace] would be. When you got to know him, Shirou was kind of a hippy.

"I don't care about you or your achievements." Naturally, the one who casually said such a devastating thing was the cute little girl, who was also a cold-hearted snow demon. She wasn't even looking at him to gauge his reaction, she just offered it up. In Kirito's mind, even more then her problems with empathy, the way that she didn't care about other peoples' opinions at all, but assumed they cared about hers, was the most annoying thing about Ilya.

"No, no." Kirito said, shaking his head as he raised his hand and casually pushed aside what they had to offer. "What's important is that as of yesterday, the spell [Alteration] was made available. With that, we're two-thirds of the way to completing the basics of [Physical Magecraft]."

"What?" Asuna asked, frowning slightly. It wasn't an expression of annoyance or frustration, but instead, she was just pushing her eyebrows together the way she did when she didn't understand. Well, if she thought he was being deliberately obtuse, she really would get annoyed.

"The three basic spells of [Physical Magecraft]." Kirito explained. "There's [Reinforcement], which is making something closer to perfect by buffing its stats, then [Alteration], which is adding new features to something, and [Projection], which is making something out of nothing." He nodded after finishing his succinct and complete description.

"Not nothing." Ilya corrected idly. "You spend the prana to make it, so it's not like you're doing something as amazing as denying nothingness."

Kirito rolled his eyes. "Okay, so you spend a couple kilojoules of magic and get a couple kilograms of matter." He shrugged expressively. If energy was equal to mass times the square of light speed, which was three hundred million meters per second, then with simple algebra, the square was the square of three times ten to twice the exponent. Like that, Kirito guessed at how far from scientific common sense the idea of [Projection] was. "So instead of getting something for nothing you get ninety million billion for one." Really, his point was you'd normally round down that trivial fraction to [Nothing], because it was something obviously impossible either way. An effect like [Projected items fade after time] was a rule imposed to preserve [Game Balance], rather than an organic implication of the internal logic of [Thaumaturgy]. That was Kirito's instinct as a gamer, anyway.

"But it will disappear." Ilya pointed out. "So you can't really call it creation when it's a phenomenon that will end, can you?"

"I'm not so sure about that." Asuna murmured. "I mean, even stars lose mass to light as they fuse nuclei into heavier matter and shine, right? It's not like you can say stars don't exist, or they don't create matter."

"Stars aren't illusions." Shirou said. Kirito blinked, glancing at the other guy. Shirou was still scouting the horizon, which the rest of the party should honestly also be doing. But he didn't speak up as an excuse to implicitly scold them. His body language said he was just saying something for the sake of participating, but somehow Kirito got the impression, from the hint of tension in his jaw maybe, that he was saying something really important.

"Yeah and NerveGear means an illusion is our reality." Kirito winced at how brusque that sounded, and his instincts were telling him to change the subject as it got uncomfortable, especially since he had skirted the taboo. So he hastened to carry on, and say, "But the important thing is that we're one step closer to completing the [Basics] and moving on to the [Advanced] magecraft!" He nodded confidently.

Ilya made a "huh" sound, while Shirou simply continued to steadily gaze at the horizon, before Asuna made soft sound like Kirito had disappointed her. "Let's focus on finishing today's map, okay?" Like that, she stepped forward, picking her way across the baked flats.

Kirito sighed, less dramatically and more sincerely this time. "So short-sighted." He muttered.

"Eh?" Asuna said, sharply. "What was that? I thought I heard someone slacking on the mission complain about the rest of the group."

"Hey." Shirou said softly, stepping forward.

"No, it's okay." Kirito said, waving him off. "Asuna… yes, the mapping quest is important. But just like we're racing to stay on the [Front Line] of the map, we also need to put effort into staying on the [Front Line] of [Magecraft]. If we let our ability commands fall behind, then the Players who put more thought into their character foundations will reach higher than us."

Asuna looked like she was going to snap at him, probably something about how the [Death Game] wasn't a [Game] or something equally obvious and actually wrong, but the friction was interrupted by Ilya. "Oh, you say some pretty good things, Kirito-kun. Getting proud just over the basics is kind of cute, so why don't you keep going and tell us how cool you're going to turn out?" She smiled at him. "Even if you crash, you can be assured that I'll fully watch until the end."

Kirito examined Ilya's face while she stared at him. This… it was like when she scolded and mocked Kibaou in front of everyone. Talking down to him so thoroughly, such absolute condescension would mentally oppress anyone. He glanced aside, and then his gaze dropped, as his finger came up to scratch his cheek as he self-consciously reviewed his words.

"Ilya." Shirou said. His voice was slightly testy.

But glancing aside had put Asuna into view. Because his gaze was down, he couldn't really see her face, but her body said she was slightly concerned, but also, how to put it, that she thought he was getting his just desserts. He could just let Shirou reign her in, but somehow, Kirito wanted to defend himself against Ilya without relying on that. He wasn't really sure what he wanted to say, but he was feeling around the edge of something he really wanted to firmly grasp in his hands and proudly hold up. "It's like… memorizing the times tables." He said. "It's not something necessarily useful in and of itself, but once you understand the operation, you can move on."

He nodded as he became confident in his metaphor. "Once you have the multiplication tables in your head, you can complete algebra problems as quickly as you can think, rather than having to reach for paper or a calculator, and since you understand, you can even go on to turn them into instructions for a computer." He crossed his arms. "So maybe you think I'm silly for being so excited about learning my times tables, but once we start doing trigonometry problems, and I can solve them in my head and you can't, we'll see who's cooler then."

If there was a flaw in his argument then it was something like calling superior math ability [cool], but fortunately for him, Shirou was a dork, Ilya was a weirdo, and Asuna was a total [Honors Student]. Truly, they were excellent comrades for a (self-proclaimed) total computer otaku like him.

Unexpectedly, the next objection came from Shirou. "And what if there's someone who can't do multiplication in the first place… they should just focus on addition, right?"

Kirito wanted to say 'what are you even talking about', but it was Asuna that responded. "That's impossible." She said, with confidence. "Talent with math isn't something that can break down so concretely at the middle or high school level. If you have the talent, you have the talent." She nodded, and of course, finished with logic of a total, no, a [Perfect Honor Student]. "And in the first place, someone that puts effort into their studies will see results, so someone that focuses on math will see their grades go up."

Kirito wasn't so sure. There definitely was such a thing as [Talent] that acted as a huge multiplier on mathematical ability. He was pretty proud of his abilities, but he'd personally met people that were overwhelmingly better with numbers than him. Well, he was a better programmer than that guy, so he consoled himself with that.

No, there was something even more fundamental than that.

"Shirou," he said, "Have you even copied [Alteration] into your spell book?"

Asuna turned, and looked at him with a confused scowl that was slightly adorable. "What are you talking about? Don't change the subject."

Kirito definitely sighed for real that time. "My point is," he said with resignation, "that we've started talking about strange things, when we should stay sharp and not focus on just grinding without planning our builds." He shrugged. "If we don't keep our attributes like [Strength] and [Agility] up, then we won't be able to equip the best gear. Just like that, if we don't max out our knowledge parameter, we won't be able to learn the best spells."

"Oh?" Ilya said, raising an eyebrow. "But aren't attributes like our Circuits and Elements fixed at character generation, Kirito?"

Kirito nodded. "Yeah, that's why I said [knowledge]. The [Thaumaturgy System]… how can I put it, it doesn't have the same logic as a normal game system where you need to max out your point spread. It's a total sandbox, the most important thing is the player's imagination."

"Well, you would know better than I would." Ilya said. It was a straightforward and simple delivery, but somehow, Kirito definitely knew she was telling a joke at his expense, and that the fact he didn't know what it was, was also part of the joke.

"So where should I go to get the [Alteration] spell, Kirito?" Asuna asked. Kirito smiled at her. Since she was willing to acknowledge that he was correct, that made him feel generous.

"Just increment your [Favors owed to Kirito] counter by one and I'll give it to you." He said. Well, it wasn't like his generosity was unlimited, though.

"I already have it, so no thanks." Ilya breezily said. He hadn't been planning to offer it to her, so that worked out just fine.

Still, as he glanced at the last party member, he considered. Shirou was still vigilantly standing guard. He had thought that the other guy might have been expectant, and perhaps assume that Kirito would share with him just like his little sister had, but instead he'd stepped right back out of the conversation and went back to acting as the sentinel. There was something unnatural in the way Shirou always casually assumed he was an outsider, something more profound than just the inclinations of a natural loner. It wasn't like he was awkward or unskilled with others, but instead, like he had a mental limiter that constrained him. So, Kirito followed his whim.

"You better not ask for anything weird." Asuna muttered, giving him a suspicious look when the trade icon popped into her window.

Shirou blinked, looking down. "Kirito." He said, with a hesitant and slightly amazed tone of voice, looking at the pop-up like he couldn't believe his eyes, even though it was a basic trade window like you would get when you bought or sold with anyone, even shop NPCs.

"If you want to thank me, just give me the next sword that drops for you," Kirito said, casting about for the right thing to say, "that's better than an [Anneal Blade]." It was a slightly awkward line, but the way Shirou was looking at him made him feel uncomfortable. This wasn't a big deal; at most, he was saving Shirou an hour of time to run the [Quest], so that indescribable look, like Kirito had surprisingly and casually handed him a pearl, was too strange.

"We should get back to mapping." Ilya said. She leapt forward, grabbing Shirou's hand and jerking him down towards her, and around as she swung on his arm. "Come on, Shirou!"

I I I

It was frustrating, but once they determined their path was a dead end, they decided to head back for the day. It would take too long to both double back the way they came and then map a new path, but they would still return with over an hour to spare before reaching town, so they moved slowly, and practiced the new spell on the way.

Asuna frowned, diligently concentrating. Compared to the [Linear Burst] that built up a charge of prana in the sword and detonated it, what she was trying to do was something similar, but still a little different. Since she had the most practice with [Fire Element], she decided that she would naturally try to use that with Alteration first.

She closed her eyes, circulating prana through her circuits. The image of [Burst] was completely wrong for achieving this effect. She wasn't trying to explode it, but rather, load a charge of Prana into the sword, and then let it slowly burn off. Rather than a detonation, it was more like burning the fumes off a bucket of gasoline. The result would be a [Flaming Sword].

Still, there was a dull bang sound as the [Spell] failed, and the sword took durability damage. Just like a bucket of gasoline, it was too easy for the spark to cause a runaway reaction that uncontrollably exploded. What she was trying to do wasn't to make it so that she was regulating the amount of gas released, but rather make it so that the rate of evaporation didn't change even when there was a fire right on top of the bucket.

She sighed, slightly despondent.

"Don't worry." Kirito said. "I'm confident you'll figure it out eventually."

"Thank you, Kirito-kun." She said. She halfway wanted to snap at him for patronizing her, but even as she had placed her tongue against her teeth, she realized that he had been saying that sincerely. He really did believe in her. That warmth made the anger melt away.

"And I'll like you no matter how much you fail, Oniichan." Ilya said warmly behind them, dragging on Shirou's arm.

Asuna winced slightly, sharing a pained look with Kirito. If Asuna was only achieving 20% success in getting the [Flaming Sword] effect to start up, then it was just proof it was incomplete and needed practice. She was failing a lot, but it was just a matter of improving what was already there.

By comparison, Shirou hadn't even succeeded once. It was true that she had an advantage because of her [Fire Element], but at the same time, she had actually fallen behind him in the beginning. He could distribute the prana into the sword perfectly, but rather than achieving anything, rather than igniting at all, it just evaporated. It didn't even cause damage like Asuna's mistakes did; instead, it failed to even fail.

"Well, I'm sure you'll figure something out." Kirito said. "I mean, my first attempt didn't work, either." He nodded solemnly, paying attention to something inside himself rather than them. "Or my second. Or third." His head nodded slower, like there was weight gathering and pressing down on his shoulders. "Or fourth."

"But eventually you did achieve something, right, Kirito?" She said, pointedly. Getting distracted telling anecdotes about himself was one of Kirito's least cool points, even if the stories were usually interesting. On the other hand, she appreciated that he was willing to paint himself in an unflattering light. He was more confident than he probably thought he was.

"Yeah." He pulled his sword up and out of the scabbard on his back, casually swinging it to hang towards the ground in front of him. She could feel the indistinct tug as he started gathering prana after opening his circuits. After gathering only a fraction of his full capacity, he stopped. He concentrated for a moment, and then held his sword in front of him. "There." Was all he said. Then, he continued gathering prana again.

Asuna frowned, studying the boy holding the sword in front of her. "I can't tell what's different." She admitted.

"He's gathering prana through the sword." Shirou said. He was standing slightly farther away, and his gaze wasn't focused, but somehow he could tell more of what was going on than Asuna could. "You… changed the sword's nature into a [Prana Conductor] like glass?" Asuna hadn't known that glass was a [Prana Conductor], or even that materials could be [Resistors] and [Conductors] of prana like they would be with electricity or heat.

"He can't actually contain any Prana in it as a vessel though." Ilya pointed out without any regard for feelings. "It's like an armored knight holding out a copper wire in a lightning storm." With a disturbing image like that, she criticized the [Spell]. "All it does is make it slightly easier for power to flow one way when it could already go every other way just fine."

Kirito just sighed, slightly annoyed. "Then I suppose you have some better advice, Ilya-sensei?"

Ilya frowned at him. "I don't like it when people tease me, so I won't teach you." She smiled with a sharp expression, before turning to the boy she was latched on to. "Of course, if Shirou-niichan asked me, that's different."

Shirou glanced at Asuna and she shook her head slightly even as she rocked back and held her hands up, and then over at Kirito like he would be any use at all, before looking back down at Ilya. His shoulders slumped slightly. "Please teach me, Ilya-sensei." His voice was very tired.

Ilya still lit up with the biggest smile Asuna had ever seen on her face. "Ah!" Ilya said. "Well, since Shirou asked." She let go of him, and skipped forwards, spinning in place with her hands pressed together behind her back, leaning over. "For Shirou, the most important thing is to focus single-mindedly on the fact it's [Physical Magecraft] and ignore anything that deviates even slightly from [Physically existing]." She held up a finger. "In that case, you need to think of your [Spells] in a different way, because something as phantasmal as adding a spiritual trait to an object is too non-physical." Asuna glanced at Shirou. At least he seemed to be following along.

Ilya held up one finger. "[Reinforcement] is a magic where you take a drawing of a triangle and make the lines straighter and the angles sharper, right?"

Then, she held up three fingers, completely skipping the middle. "By comparison, [Projection] is taking a blank piece of paper and drawing your own circle on it."

A finger went down, so she was holding two. "In the middle of those is [Alteration]. Change the shape from a triangle to a square."

Shirou looked down at the sword in his hand. "Something as obvious as [Alter the Shape] is still [Alteration], huh?" He closed his eyes with an expression like annoyance or frustration that he'd realized he'd gotten stumped by such a simple problem. He breathed in, and the same instant he breathed out, his circuit flicked on.

Rather than a sensation like the tide going out as he pulled mana in, there was only a gentle wave lapping outward from the od he radiated. "Trace: On." After muttering something strange in English, his magic abruptly lept outward like he'd pulled a trigger and fired a gun.

A ripple spread up the sword from the hilt where he was holding it like a shockwave. There was exactly one wavefront that didn't bounce or waver at all, instead it just smoothly slid up from the base of the sword to the point.

His [One-Handed Iron Sword] was basic equipment. It was something that could be bought in mass from any NPC vendor or made without any thought by a PC smith with mediocre stats using basic materials. It was simple and unremarkable to look at.

However… it still had the same basic outline. It was still a double-edged long sword with a long enough handle to easily grip with two hands and a round pommel. But the blade was wider and tapered to a more elegant point, the flat of the blade was indented with a smooth curve that maximized the use of the steel, the crossguard of the hilt curved forward towards the blades and flared slightly even as the base of the sword was mounted in a noble sweep with a cross motif. The handle looked slightly rounded, fitting more naturally into the palm of Shirou's hand. Rather than something he was holding, it was more like an extension of his arm.

"That's the same shape as that time." Ilya said. Her voice was slightly sad. She was just making an observation, about what Asuna had no idea, but it was something that made her melancholic.

"It's the first shape that came to mind." With a casual gesture, Shirou swung the sword, ending the spell from the base to the tip with exactly the same ripple outwards from his hand along the blade like when he enchanted it. "I'm sorry."

Even so, there was a whisper as the sand on the hard-packed ground beside him skittered along the same line as the swing of the blade.

"A wind effect?" Kirito muttered, surprised.

Asuna was surprised, as well, but shook her head. "No." She muttered. "That wasn't [Wind Magic], or anything elemental. It was more like… the presence of the sword was longer than the blade itself?"

Shirou smiled at them. It was a complicated expression, embarrassed rather than happy. "It was less than an echo… more like a shadow. In the end it just had the same shape but it's still completely empty like all the other items."

"Huh?" Kirito said what Asuna was thinking.

Shirou shook his head self-consciously, before pushing forward. "Well, let's focus on getting back to town."

"Aha." Ilya laughed once, a sound of pure delight. Then she breathed in, and laughed fully, and long.

"Ilya, what…" Asuna said, stepping forwards in confusion.

Kirito caught her sleeve, and when she turned to look at him, he just raised a hand and pointed down.

Asuna huffed and followed his motion, looking towards the ground, and she blinked when she saw the popup announcement. Apparently it was whatever had gotten Ilya started.

[Everyone congratulate [Kibaou] on successfully completing the [King of the Mountain] Quest!]

That definitely did not seem like something that would make Ilya happy.

He must have seen her face, because Kirito whispered, "The second line is the important one." So Asuna looked down. Indeed, written in smaller print like an afterthought, was the much more important second line of the system announcement.

[The rules for [Guilds] are now enabled.]

"Even a watch smashed into pieces is right twice a day." Ilya said with a delighted smile, even as she was hurrying to call up a menu. She quickly and accurately navigated to where she wanted to be, quickly typed something, and then looked up with an expectant expression. "I was too fast to write off that Cactus-head as completely worthless, but even he has his uses, doesn't he?"

"So!" Ilya's gaze snapped up, and she looked past Asuna like the girl wasn't even there. "Shirou should join my guild!"

Asuna's gaze slid to where Shirou was standing. His hand came up towards where his menu would be, but his hand snapped back like he saw something that surprised him. Rather than answering Ilya, instead he addressed the whole group.

"…Who's [Thinker]?" His question had nothing to do with the topic at hand.

Asuna had no idea, but Kirito spoke up almost immediately. "He edited a magazine called [MMO Today], but I don't know what kind of player he is."

"He asked me to join his guild, the [Mutual Aid Society]." Shirou said, somewhat blandly.

"How can he even message you if you don't have him on your friend list?" Asuna said. She realized it was also possible that Shirou had added Thinker to his friend list and then forgotten about it, but even so, she would expect him to go "oh, that guy" when reminded of him; his question was something from total ignorance.

"You can change your profile settings to accept PMs from strangers." Kirito said. "…Is responding to emergency service calls one of the 108 special skills of the [Sixth Ranger], then?" And of course Kirito-kun finished by asking a strangely-phrased question.

"That's a good idea." Shirou said, rubbing his chin in serious thought. "Do you think Argo would put it in the [Guide] if I asked?"

"Definitely yes." Kirito said without hesitation. "But the price she asked to do so might be anything from a pittance to a pile of treasure, and I think that would depend entirely of her impression of you."

"That's not important!" Ilya interrupted, stamping the ground. "Shirou! I absolutely won't allow you to cheat on me with any other [Guild Leaders]! Hurry up and become mine!"

"Ilya-chan…" Asuna muttered, even as Kirito muttered "uwa" beside her. "Couldn't you have phrased that in a less scandalous way?" She continued on with a complaint. Right now, Asuna guessed that Ilya understood what she was saying, but only halfway. If she kept it up like that, it would definitely cause a misunderstanding with other players. If Shirou became known as one of those kinds of guys, then it would cause him all sorts of trouble in the future.

"Ah," Shirou said with a blink, "and here's [Lind] from the [Divine Dragon Alliance], too."

"Shirou!" Ilya was seriously pouting now, hands thrust down by her sides as she stood rigidly, "I don't like it when you tease me like this!" She had a tremulous, wide-eyed look as she stared at Shirou. Asuna thought she'd never looked more like a little girl than right now, reacting pitifully to getting teased.

With a sigh that was kind rather than exasperated, Shirou reached out in front of him and decisively tapped a menu selection.

"Hooray!" Ilya shouted, breaking forward as she half-ran and half-skipped to throw her arms around Shirou's neck and hug him.

Asuna glanced aside, feeling slightly like an intruder, and her eyes happened on Kirito.

He was looking at his own menu selection. His hand was rigid, like all the muscles were wound up like springs, and his other hand was clenched into a fist pressed against his hip. But, rather than angry or frustrated, his expression was wide-eyed and soft, vulnerable in a way that Asuna had never seen before.

His gaze slid to hers, and he flinched back when she realized he was exposing his emotions on his face. He swallowed and squeezed his eyes shut, forcibly sealing away whatever had gotten to him.

"It's nothing." He muttered.

"Kirito-kun." She said. She wanted to storm up and say, 'of course it's nothing', because she'd seen her father attempt to head off arguments by saying the same thing. Her mother had always coolly said, 'is that so' and dropped it. Until now she'd thought that was simply too cold, but somehow, standing in this role now, Asuna realized that confronting him directly like she always thought would be correct, would actually wrong. But dropping it would still be too cold. "Is that so?" She said, making it a question as neutrally as she could.

"A Guild Invite." He admitted after a pause. "From…" and then he shook his head, before attempting to smile and let it drop when it failed. "It's not… I don't want to talk about it."

She stared at him for a moment before accepting that. "That's fine, then." She said, nodding softly. It wasn't like she was close enough to demand answers from him, so before then, respecting his boundaries was the correct thing to do.

"Hmm?" Ilya said speculatively, and that was how the worst possible person entered the conversation. "If you don't want to join that one, I suppose I could accept you into my guild instead."

Kirito seriously considered it, and judging by the expression like he'd bitten into something sour, seriously rejected it. "Thanks," he said insincerely, "but all the same, I'll stick to being a [Solo Player] for now since that's my natural inclination."

"Your loss." Ilya said dismissively, before turning her piercing stare to Asuna. "How about you, Asuna-kun? Would you like to join the [Brotherhood of Saint Mark] with Shirou-nii and me?"

Even though she rationally shouldn't be, Asuna was honestly surprised by the offer. She blinked, shifting her weight, and her attention shifted from Ilya's wide, unblinking eyes to Shirou's completely unexpectant gaze, and then she cast her attention over to Kirito, who had an odd look on his face. When he saw that she was looking to him for advice, he hesitated for a moment, before saying, "You are strong. If you think Ilya's guild can take you as far as you can go, then, but only then, you should join."

Sometimes, feeling prideful, Asuna imagined her words were like her sword, swiftly piercing to the heart of the matter and skillfully avoiding all deflections. Compared to that, Kirito's advice was exactly like his own swordsmanship; his first move led into a greater finish. Rather than knocking her down and finishing her, those words both filled her with warmth, and then lifted her up. As someone who wanted to clear the game as fast as possible, joining an aggressive clearing guild was the most compatible option. From that perspective, she nodded and turned a steady gaze back to the little girl with the clear eyes.

[Player [Von Ilya] has invited you to join Guild [Brotherhood of Saint Mark]. Accept? Y/N]

Asuna reached up, and made her decision.

"Yeah!" Ilya said, as she pumped one little fist in the air. "Our official uniform is going to be Maids and Butlers!"

That definitely had nothing to do with being the [Strongest Guild]. "W-what?" Asuna said, choosing speed over accuracy in issuing her first complaint. "That's not appropriate at all!"

"Recruiting other players wouldn't be a problem like that." Kirito said, eying her. It was definitely the attention of a man assessing a woman, so Asuna sputtered at him, too.

"Ilya," Shirou calmly pointed out, "you're completely incapable of customer service so there's no way that would work."

"Not for me!" Ilya countered, pouting. Then, with an expression like she realized something good, she replied, "Of course, for Shirou I would be willing to make an exception."

"Denied." Shirou replied with a casual and simple word that utterly disregarded her counteroffer. "In the first place you can't even make tea, so how can you possibly do it? Don't underestimate maids."

"Even I can put a teabag into hot water!" Ilya protested, punching Shirou's chest lightly.

"Ilya-san…" Asuna murmured, "you should really pour the hot water onto the teabag already in the cup." Obviously that improved the seeping. From there, you could say that stirring while pouring was the next step up, but in the end, teabags were almost foolproof, so it didn't matter too much.

"See?" Shirou said. "Even your friend agrees." He nodded with perfect seriousness.

"Mou!" Ilya said, pouting.

"Incoming." Kirito said, breaking into the banter with a warning. When their attention snapped to him, he nodded towards a crack in the hard dust that was quivering with the indicator of an underground giant centipede.

Ilya unslung her sword as she juked around from Shirou, who also sunk into a combat stance. Asuna flipped her circuit on, gathered mana into herself, and prepared her sword with a [Linear Burst].

It was time to get back to work.


	25. 6:3 Quest for Steel

"Or-raa!" Agil swung his two handed-axe in a wide attack, blasting it through the enemy centipede mob as he took a wide step and shouted with all his might. He stepped away, shouting, "Switch!" as he retreated from the front.

"Right!" Mosaku darted forward with his shield up. His short sword thrust out like a stinger to pierce the monster as he used a rapid three-hit combo, before retreating himself. "Switch!" He finished.

"On it!" Tonnura shouted as he stepped forward with his own two-handed curved sword, swinging it diagonally to cut the monster. "Switch!" He shouted, as quickly retreated as the monster used a claw attack.

"Whatever." With a sour expression, the last member of the party stepped forward, thrusting up with his spear. These guys fought so seriously, and the big guy was pretty good, but the other two just didn't have the stats. It was kind of boring. But, that was why he was here. Agil was someone who could stand on the Front Lines, but his two minions weren't as good as them. Protecting them while they gathered items was the mission he'd been given.

Cuvie kept his gaze steady on the enemy as he stepped forward once and dropped into a low stance, facing towards the monster with his spear pointed out and down. With a careful breath, he circulated prana in his circuits and breathed out.

"Cuvie! Watch out!" Mosaku shouted. Cuvie ignored him, focusing on his magic. Carefully, he gathered up his prana, converting it with his Water Element and crushing it into the blade of his spear, making it as heavy and dense as possible. In front of him, the monster reared up, and swung its jaws down.

With a fierce growl, Cuvie thrust his spear forward, burying the point in the upper body of the monster, and released the compressed magic, like a snapping spring. "[Burst Impulse]!" He loudly announced to himself and the world, actualizing the magecraft.

Water gushed outward from the spear buried in the enemy like he'd thrust a firehose into the giant centipede rather than a steel blade.

But he still wasn't done. The water he created with his [Water Psychogenesis] would be modified with his [Fire Telekenesis]. The fake material was already made from his prana, so synchronizing with it wouldn't be a problem at all. What he did was connect the waves of prana to his core and used the motion of swinging the spear back behind him as the visualization as the effect. The heat energy was pulled out from the water, and scattered around behind him, creating a painfully hot draft as it scattered away in a whirlwind.

But as a result, the [water] was converted to [ice]. It was incomplete, so there was still plenty of water that simply dripped about, but the monster had a [Partial Paralysis] status as a result of the blades of ice inside it that smoothly transitioned into the sheet of ice cascading from the wound.

Cuvie breathed in and out, feeling like he had roasted himself from the inside. A glance at his HP bar indicated that he'd gone over his limits slightly. It was an amateur mistake, even if it was only a sliver of health. But even if he went past his limits like that it still wasn't good enough. Compared to hers the damage was still lower. Even if the monster was pushed into the red zone by him, that was only a little less than a third of the HP of a trash mob like this. He simply couldn't make it explosive enough. Most of the water just uselessly gushed out of the wound and poured out onto the ground. He grit his teeth in frustration, staring at the monster.

"Don't just stand there! Finish it!" Agil shouted, taking his own advice to use a strong axe attack to carve into the monster.

"R-right!" Tonura nodded, wobbling once as he got himself under control, and then stepped forward to attack with his curved sword.

With that, the monster was finally defeated, and dissipated into a cloud of pixels.

"Behind you!" Mosaku shouted, and Cuvie twisted in place, bringing his spear up into a guard. He parried the body slam of the new centipede that had burst out of the ground, getting pushed back.

"Don't panic!" Agil shouted, like that was actually going to happen to a Front-liner like Cuvie. Instead he calmly twisted his spear, spinning it around to slash across the head of the monster and whipped it around to stab at the throat. "Switch." He muttered, stepping back.

"On it." A new voice announced.

A white blur appeared over his shoulder, leaping around him. A tall figure with a red banner streaming from his neck appeared. Without any weapon equipped, instead he charged forward with his fingers straight and flat. They glowed, as he used the [Martial Arts Skill] to attack with a strong chop across his body with the right hand, diagonally down with the left hand, and then straight down with the right hand in a single [Skill]. Even using the low-powered martial arts with a quick three-hit skill, he pushed the enemy into the red zone. "Switch." He calmly said, stepping back quickly, keeping his eyes on the monster.

"Got it." Agil was the first to react, using a powerful leaping attack to clear the distance and bring his heavy two-handed attack down like a guillotine, landing the [Last Attack].

Cuvie pressed his lips together, staring at the newcomer. Wearing that white jumpsuit and star-horned mask with the red scarf, it was the [Sixth Ranger]. He was examining his hands, which were a slightly unnatural gray-brown color, and moved stiffly when he flexed them. Compared to Cuvie, this guy was also much stronger, if he could even make his unarmed attacks that powerful.

"We didn't need your help." Cuvie said, biting the words out.

"I know." The Sixth Ranger replied, finally looking up to sweep the four in with his gaze. "Even if you were ambushed, I could already tell that you had taken back control of the situation and would win soon."

"So in that case, to what do we owe the [Sixth Ranger] partying up with Agil's Item Shop?" Agil was the one that spoke, stepping forward, glancing aside at Cuvie. Cuvie just huffed, looking away, but Agil turned his attention back to the interloper.

"Where the motto is buy cheap and sell cheap!" Mosaku and Tonnura chorused in perfect time after Agil's announcement, ignoring the byplay of the other two. Well, since Cuvie already knew that they did that because it was Agil's idea, he couldn't really blame them. After all, he was their [Guild Leader]. All three of them had the Guild icon, a super-classic drawstring pouch on a purple background, indicating their guild, displayed next to their names. Cuvie had a different one, a silver sword on a golden sunburst background.

In response to Agil's question, after glancing aside at the other two, the white ranger reached in front of him, tapped through his invisible menu, and materialized a one-handed straight sword. He held it out in front of him. "You have the appraise skill, right?" He asked.

Agil nodded seriously, stepping forward as he equipped it. After inclining his head to ask for permission, he reached out and took the sword, and then whistled. "It has almost no durability left. You probably need this [Reinforcement] effect just to keep it from breaking."

The Sixth Ranger nodded. "Yes. I dequipped it in case I needed it for an emergency situation, and relied on my backup skills. When I recognized you, I decided to ask if you have a repair skill or can sell me a replacement."

"So why interfere in our battle?" Cuvie demanded.

Agil rolled his eyes, but kept his attention on the person in front of him. "Normally while running a quest I only carry my personal items with me, and leave my stock back in town. Especially since I tend to equip heavy weapons, I carry what I use. That means I only have axe weapons on me." He turned to glance at the other party members.

Cuvie did have plenty of spare spears because his magecraft practice was brutal on their durability, but he didn't feel any obligation to obey Agil, so he just shook his head.

"I've only got my one backup." Mosaku admitted, bowing slightly. Because he was so tall, even bowing his head was still higher than Cuvie, so he could see that the other guy actually had a sincerely apologetic look on his face. As someone that equipped one-handed straight swords he was probably the best match, even if Mosaku tended more towards piercing damage then slashing damage.

"Ha ha ha." Tonnura laughed with confidence, puffing up. "I've got six copies of each of the [Iron Longsword], the [Iron Curved Sword], the [Iron Dagger], and the [Iron Shortsword]." He announced.

"Good job." Agil praised, before turning back. "So, the price is 4500 col for the Longsword and Curved Sword, and 4400 for the Dagger and Shortsword."

"I thought you said you sold for cheap." The Sixth Ranger objected. In Cuvie's opinion, it was a totally reasonable objection, because that wasn't cheap at all.

"And I am." Agil said, nodding serenely. "It's true that it's more expensive than in town, but the convenience of field sales is a cost for the shop, so even like this you can't say the price is unreasonable."

"Hm." The Sixth Ranger muttered, unconvinced.

"What are you even doing out here anyway?" Cuvie asked. "Since you have to go back to town for the evening anyway, why don't you just go early and run in-town magic quests or something?"

The Sixth Ranger nodded, and then responded. "And what if there's somebody I could have saved, if I hadn't gone back to town for a new weapon?"

"Tch." Cuvie said. If you considered the reputation of the [Sixth Ranger], then it was a completely reasonable response. The wandering hero who appeared and saved you when you got in too deep… that was the kind of guy he was. Cuvie knew that rationally. But, right now, frustrated that he was falling short of what he wanted to be, gritting his teeth because he couldn't carry on what he had inherited, it made him lash out. "Well, that's not a problem, because we don't need you to save us, you should just focus on fighting the Boss if that's what you want."

Somehow, it was like that guy was on exactly the same wavelength, that he knew exactly who Cuvie was referring to. The wide-eyed and hurt expression on the Sixth Rangers face made him feel bad, but it also inflamed his anger. If it was so shocking, then didn't that mean that this guy's strength was undirected? That he regretted his choice so easily, didn't that mean he recognized his choice was stupid that easily? It made Cuvie angry.

"Cuvie." Agil said, voice heavy. "If you have complaints, then this isn't the right place. But you don't even have any right to criticize someone that's doing his best."

"Tch." Cuvie clicked his tongue. "You were there, for both, right? The first time, this bastard swooped in and saved everybody so easily, but the second time, he wasn't around, so Yona died."

"You're right." His voice was pained, like the [Sixth Ranger] was admitting to a wound he also couldn't deny. "Because I wasn't there, I couldn't save him."

And that infuriated Cuvie for a different reason. Because Yona had died as a hero, rather than dying as someone who needed a hero. "It's not like you were supposed to save him." Cuvie snapped. "Yeah you weren't there, but we're not babies who need you to wipe our butts. It's not like I wanted him to save me, either." He shook his head, not even sure what he wanted to say. "But that's what happened, so I gotta be stronger. Strong enough that I don't need you to save him or him to save me, that I can rely on myself." Cuvie shook his head, rubbing his eyes with his arm. "Dammit." He muttered, because his vision was blurring and it was shameful.

The Sixth Ranger was silent for a long time, and the rest of the party was quiet too. Somehow, their respect made him respect Agil and his two sidekicks more in turn, even if he was embarrassed.

"In that case, you should know that Asuna's [Linear Burst] is unsuitable for you." Finally, that was what he chose to say.

"You…" Cuvie said darkly, "Are you looking to pick a fight?"

The Sixth Ranger sighed, glancing aside with a complicated expression even if it was covered by that mask. "If you want to become stronger, determining what you're good at is the first step. Since you're not good at [Linear Burst] you should try something else."

"Do you have a better idea then?" Cuvie shot back.

"Your ice was pretty cool." Tonnura finally spoke up. When everyone turned to glance at him, he flinched back, but when Mosaku nodded in encouragement, he pushed forward. "Maybe you could create an ice sword like Durandal?"

"I'm a spear user." Cuvie pointed out.

"Durandal wasn't an ice sword." The Sixth Ranger pointed out. When everyone turned to look at him, he blinked. "What?" He asked.

"Um, Durandal is always an ice sword in RPGs, just like Excalibur is always the best sword." Mosaku added, explaining what was common sense for a gamer of Japanese heritage.

"An ice sword, huh." The Sixth Ranger said, musing. His eyes flicked back and forth, like he was reading a book or consulting a database that he pulled up in his menu. Well, they hadn't seen him move, so pulling up the menu they couldn't see wasn't really possible. "Like that." He said in conclusion. Then he nodded, looking back at Cuvie.

"What if you created ice along the path of the blade?" The Sixth Ranger said. "So that you could box the enemy in, because even if they dodged the attack, the ice left in the wake sealed up their motions."

"Floating in the air behind the blade?" Cuvie muttered, cocking his head to the side. It was obvious that ice would fall to the ground without anything to support it, but on the other hand, it was magic, so if he just imagined it like that or fixed it in place with Telekinesis, then it would work, wouldn't it? And it did sound easier to create a constant flow of ice rather than an explosive effect. "I guess I'll have to try."

"So," Agil said, clapping his hands together, "In that case, would you like to buy anything? For the prices, the long and curved swords are 2500, and the shortsword and dagger are 2400."

"That's a pretty big discount." Cuvie muttered.

The Sixth Ranger studied Agil for a moment, and then smiled. "I think…" his eyes flicked to the sword that Tonnura was holding. "You know, it was by default, but I actually started the game with a curved sword, not a straight sword, so I'll go back to that."

Agil nodded to Tonnura, who stepped forward, opening his menu and navigating to offer a trade to the Sixth Ranger, who accepted in turn with a quiet nod.

After he took off running, Tonnura and Mosaku waved, chorusing "Thank you and come again!"

Meanwhile, Agil turned to face him, so Cuvie stuck out his chin defiantly. "Kid," Agil said, rubbing his face with a sigh, "you owe me 2000 col." That was the conclusion he settled on.

"You're tighter than Argo." Cuvie complained. But he opened his menu to navigate to a trade window regardless.

I I I

It was getting late. The sun was going down, and even [Reinforced] to the limit, he couldn't see any Players out on the dry flats. What few ones were left, were climbing the hill roads to return to [Danzac] after finishing up for the day. The wind was picking up, a chilly evening breeze, which was worse when he was exposed on the top of the irregular mountain that jutted out near the center of the floor.

His gaze traveled across the floor. After meeting with Agil's party, he had only chosen to participate in two more battles. It hadn't been truly necessary. In both cases, it was [Gatherer] groups that were beginning to get overwhelmed. However, since the latest release of [Argo's Guide], which advised that [Gatherer] Players should also be careful in the field and listed many specific countermeasures, an even greater policy change had been made. Diabel was sending most of his [Hunter] Players out to escort the [Gatherers]. It slowed down the speed at which his group could map the floor, but in exchange, the safety margin for players that ventured out of town on the Second and Third floors had dramatically gone up. And those [Hunters], no, those [Guards] were also gaining valuable experience at fighting to protect others and expand their situational awareness.

In short, for those two groups, he wasn't certain they needed him. In either case it was definitely possible that the [Guards] could have taken control of the battle back from the mobs and won by themselves without any problems.

Was the [Sixth Ranger] no longer needed?

In the beginning, in those first few weeks, he had ran around like mad, charging from battle to battle at top speed, and he had saved many people. But as people got used to battle, the number of incidents where players were in serious danger of losing their lives had dramatically decreased. They still happened, but they were so irregular that Shirou couldn't predict where or how. Practically speaking, he couldn't save those people anymore.

Suicides… twice he had reached out to people, who threw themselves over the side before he could even reach them. Once, the worst, he had made it in time, he had pulled the girl off the wall, and scolded her, and she had agreed he was right, she had cried into her hands and apologized to him, to her parents, to the world.

And then, when he was leaving, she had turned and thrown herself off anyway. Watching the still-apologetic expression on her face as she had fallen away, he had possessed the crazy desire to leap after her, but stopped himself simply because he had no way to save her from there. She hadn't disappeared into the clouds below; she had just shattered once she reached a predetermined distance down.

Since the second floor was cleared, not even one such [Suicide] had occurred before him. It was possible that it was happening where he couldn't see, but the mood of the game was different since that time, people no longer looked strained just walking around town. The sense of doom was gone.

And now, the [Gathering] Players were also safer. Diabel's decision to deploy bodyguards was correct. Practically, they didn't need him either.

After weeks of living like a whirlwind, blowing like a gust across the floors to save people, was he fundamentally not required? It had been necessary for the [Sixth Ranger] to join battles so that people would be saved.

"Rejoice, Emiya Shirou. Your wish has been granted."

It was not him who said it. It was someone else who had said that. And those words spoken in that smooth and delighted voice were just a memory. The only sound was still the soft wind in the twilight.

But still, Shirou stood up like someone had poured icewater down his back, gritting his teeth with all the strength he could pull from his jaw muscles.

It wasn't wrong to want to save people. If people no longer needed saving that way, then he would just have to find another way, a better way to save people. Yes, that was obviously the correct answer.

He nodded, relaxing his jaw and the muscles along his spine.

He glanced around one last time. Night had fallen. Since that made the fluorescent colors of HP bars and Player indicators stand out more easily, in a way, the night time made it even easier to pick out players. But, he couldn't see any Players.

He decided to return for the night.

Now what he had to do, was think of a better way to save people.

I I I

Danzac was on the south face of a mountain, so the main street was a wide promenade of switchbacks that zig-zagged up from a wide gate at the base to a temple that housed the Teleport Plaza at the peak. The road was broad and flat cobblestones, but the architecture was faintly Arabian. The wall surrounding the city was a two-meter tall skirt around the whole mountain, so even the mostly unoccupied north face was a [Safe Zone]. The wall fronted cliffs and steep slopes, so even if it was two meters tall from the inside, it was intimidatingly high from the outside.

He was walking back, climbing the zig-zagging main street while lost in thought, when he heard someone shout his name.

"Shirou! Over here!"

He looked up, blinking as he stopped in place, glancing around, until he picked out a waving hand, and raised his own hand in acknowledgement as he jogged forward.

Standing in the front of a storefront shop, with his fists proudly resting on his hips, was Takachan.

"Takachan. Good evening." Shirou said.

"What do you think?" Takachan said raising his arms to gesture at the building around him. "It's thanks to your help that we could turn the [Telluric Iron] into amazing equipment, and in turn be able to afford this shop!" He finished, with a proud nod. "So if you need any maintenance on your equipment, then I'll give you a big discount!"

That reminded Shirou. "My usual sword is only one point away from breaking." He admitted.

"Hmm." Takachan said, rubbing his chin. "Well, it's a good thing you came to us, then. It would be a big problem if that had happened when you still needed it in the field."

"Something like that." Shirou politely replied. "You seem to be in a good mood today."

Takachan laughed. "Yes! The euphoria of opening a shop is something I've been lucky enough to experience four times in my life, although this is the first time in the virtual world!" He nodded again. "This is what I wanted to do from the beginning, so I'm delighted it happened so quickly."

"What is?" Shirou said. "Open a shop in the game?"

Takachan smiled lopsidedly. "Well… outside, you know…" he said, gesturing up and away halfheartedly, "I own a chain of stores in Akiba called [Takachan's Electronic Showroom], that sells equipment to gamers." He looked around, before leaning in. "It's not something I'm proud of, but I probably sold a fifth of the NerveGears in use." He stepped back, shaking his head. "It's only because I'm in a good mood that I'm admitting it, and I think you can be trusted with it, so please don't spread that around." He nodded again, before finishing. "My goal here wasn't to enjoy the game, but to raise the profile of my shop outside by indirect advertising in here."

"I see." Shirou said, digesting that. "Thank you for trusting me." He paused, considering. "If that was… before, then why did you decide to carry on after the [Official Launch] happened?"

Takachan was quiet, thinking, before he smiled softly. "I'm not as good as you kids on the Front Line. Frankly speaking, I don't have talents for video games or sports. So supporting you kids with the best possible equipment is the way I decided to help everyone." He clapped Shirou on the shoulder. "Well, Doumeki and Hard are out eating, but Liz is still in the back working, so just go back there and she'll handle the repairs for you."

"Thanks. I'll do that." Shirou said, mulling the words over.

"Anytime!" Takachan called after in a jolly voice, before turning back to face the front of the store.

Shirou stepped through an alcove into the back space of the store, where the Player named [Lisbeth] called [Liz] by her party members, or rather, her Guild now, was sitting with her back to him while hammering on a piece of bar stock resting on an anvil in front of an open fire. He could tell that it was called [Telluric Iron Bar], and that it was made from her share of the [Telluric Basalt] that they had gathered from that quest on the Second Floor.

He didn't want to interrupt, so Shirou quietly walked up to watch.

Her face was completely calm, but her eyes were perfectly focused as she swung the [Black Iron Hammer]. Two, three more times she hit the piece of metal gripped by tongs in her left hand. The hammer moved in a hypnotic rhythm, more like a piece of Liz than a hologram.

After the sixth blow he could see, or rather, the tenth blow total, the bar stock changed, glowing brightly, unnaturally, before its shape squeezed and spread out.

It was no longer a piece of bar stock, but a sword. It was a one-handed sword, a rapier that could be used with the [Fencing Extra Skill] that branched off [One-Handed Swords]. It was the same skill that Asuna used. In terms of stats, this blade was at least the same level as an [Anneal Blade]. It wasn't as tough, the durability and hardness was lower, but it was lighter and better balanced than any other sword he had seen. It was sharper and faster. It was a good sword.

A menu popped up, and Liz typed quickly and accepted, replacing the default name with a [User Input], and the sword was officially named the [Fallen Comet].

"Thanks for waiting." Liz said, turning. "I'm glad you finally learned not to interrupt me when-owa!" She broke off, jumping up in surprise when she saw who had walked in. "You're not Takachan!" She accused.

"Um, he said I should come in for maintenance." Shirou sheepishly said, rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry for startling you."

Liz sighed, shaking her head. "No, it's at least as much my fault. Still, thanks for not interrupting. It wouldn't have been funny at all to mess something that important up."

"It's a beautiful sword." Shirou praised. It really was.

"Isn't it?" Liz agreed, smiling. "One of the front-liners commissioned it. Well, I would have been happy to do it just for the cost of materials since she's a friend, but she insisted." She glanced at him, and then blinked. "She has the same guild icon as you, so you probably know her… a player named [Asuna]."

"I do." Shirou affirmed. "I'm sure she'll be very happy with it."

"Thanks." Liz said. "So, you needed equipment maintained or something?"

Shirou obediently materialized his one-handed straight sword and his curved sword and handed them over. She accepted the curved sword without comment, but whistled softly when she [Appraised] the straight sword. "Wow, that's really bad. You're lucky it didn't break and leave you in a pinch." She sighed. "I would feel sorry for your blacksmith if it did."

"What do you mean?" Shirou said.

Liz started hammering on his sword, which made Shirou wince at first until he realized that was how a blacksmith repaired the durability. Once she brought it back to maximum, she handed it back. "Because it's sad." She said. "This is power that the smith entrusted to you, so if you don't maintain it and it breaks when you need it, it's like you've betrayed each other." Then she shook her hands. "I mean, in addition to you getting in a dangerous situation, of course." She added, with a guilty expression like that had been more important and she had disregarded it.

Shirou considered that, and nodded seriously. It wasn't something to laugh at. It was… good. "Liz," He asked quietly, "Why did you become a smith?"

The player Lisbeth turned and studied his face. "You thinking about switching character builds?" She asked, finally.

Shirou blinked. It wasn't like he'd particularly thought about it like that. Rather, he had just wanted to compare his path to others and see if they had any advice. If Takachan and Liz had reasons for doing what they did, then although it was intrusive, asking about their path would be a way to measure his own. But when someone asked if he wanted to be a swordsmith….

"Maybe I should." He said. To become a player, no, to become someone who made swords. That was definitely the right path for Emiya Shirou.

Liz studied his face for a moment, and eventually found what she was looking for, so she sighed expressively, slumping in place like she had lost a game of jankenpon, and then sat up straight to look him in the eye. "It's kind of embarrassing to admit, so I'm only going to say it once without repeating myself."

Shirou nodded.

Liz collected her thoughts and began speaking. "It's true that [Player Smiths] aren't really necessary. If you just need equipment maintained or even if you want new stuff, it's true that [Players] are better than [NPCs], but the cost is appropriately higher, so compared to the price, the benefit is about the same." She chewed on her lip. "But… I wanted to help." She gestured around her indistinctly. "Help clear the game. Help other players clear the game. Making the best equipment I can, to give them the best possible advantage, to improve their chances, that's why I became a smith."

He thought back to words that had been thrown at him, and had speared him, just that afternoon. "Strong enough that they don't need saving, huh." Shirou mused.

Certainly, the hero he had aspired to was only a cleaner. Appearing after sad events had already occurred, and tidying up the mess. Wasn't there a better way than that?

There was, wasn't there. If he could prepare it so the mess never occurred, then that limit would be removed. Rather than saving people, improve their parameters so they don't need saving.

Something deep in his soul clicked. His natural alignments as a magus to create weapons, and his ideal as a human to save other people, became synchronized. They were perfectly meshed gears that could turn without any friction. He would save people before the disaster had even occurred by equipping them to save themselves. That was definitely the best, most correct thing for Emiya Shirou to do.

Shirou breathed in, and then slowly out, before turning his attention to the girl that was scowling at him impatiently.

"Lisbeth-san." Shirou said, bowing. "Please teach me how to play a blacksmith."

Liz blinked, rocking back, and opened her mouth before closing it. "W-well." She coughed. "I'd be happy to teach you, but I'll need to think about it and prepare some materials, and since it's late, how about we adjourn for now and meet up tomorrow and I'll show you the ropes?"

Shirou smiled. "That would be great. Lisbeth-senpai."

Liz gave him a sour look. "You're also the super-serious type on the inside, huh?" She sighed, waving her hand. "No, don't answer that. Just show up tomorrow and I'll help you out."

Shirou stood up and bowed again. "Thank you, senpai."

Liz waved with a sloppy motion as she turned back to the forge. "Yeah, that's just… great."

As he walked out the door, Takachan turned and smiled at him. "Oh! It looks like Liz really helped you out, then?"

"Yes." Shirou said, nodding back.

"Good, good." Takachan nodded. "Well, come back anytime."

"See you tomorrow." Shirou said, waving gently as he set off.

"Yeah, tomorrow-wait, what?" Takachan's voice faded as he muttered to himself in confusion, but also because he was getting farther away as Shirou walked away.

He felt like a child that couldn't wait to get home and go to bed and go to sleep as fast as possible because he would get a wonderful present tomorrow. Yes, there were no doubts.

For Emiya Shirou, this was the right path.


	26. 6:4 The Evil Eye

Ilya hummed, kicking her legs. It was a nice day. It never rained on the Third Floor. On the days when it was raining on the Second or First Floors, instead, it just got really windy. But today was beautiful, with a clear sky all the way to the next floor plate, and a pleasant breeze. It was still quite chilly, since it was winter both inside and outside the game, but compared to the real world, the weather of Aincrad was more temperate. During the beta period, it hadn't been as hot inside the game as outside, either.

She was sitting on a slab of rock inside the Danzac [Safe Zone] near the peak of the mountain, just down the north slope from the [Temple]. It was just scrublands and occasional bushes without any trees, so the view from there was a panorama that spread out across the valley before her to the mountain peaks to the north.

She turned when she heard the sound effect of feet approaching, and waved.

Asuna and Itagaki, who were chatting to each other like schoolgirls, both waved back. One Snow, who was trailing behind with his arms crossed as he gazed at the sky, didn't even notice her, while the person in front was looking straight at her, which was unusual for him. He nodded to acknowledge her.

When they got close enough to talk, she didn't waste any time and said the most important thing.

"I trust you have them." She said to Hexadecimal. It wasn't a question because she was confident that he wouldn't have contacted her otherwise, but it was important to avoid misunderstandings.

His acknowledgement was to open a trade window with her. Inside were many items of equipment, all cloth-time armor. They had names like [Butler Shirt], and [Butler Pants], as well as [Tuxedo Jacket] and [Fancy Cravat]. She scanned over the list to guarantee that it was complete, nodding to herself. "It was a little difficult to get the materials, and I had to grind my skill a bit to create a such a sophisticated garment pattern," Hexi-kun said, "but both sets are complete." He nodded like a bird, not quite bragging about his accomplishments.

"Hoh." Ilya mused, putting a finger to her lips. "You're right to be proud of such an accomplishment." She praised him, and although he flushed slightly, she was a little annoyed he didn't thank her appropriately. Still, it was certainly sufficient so she didn't have any complaints. Nodding in satisfaction to herself, she clicked [Accept], and waited for him to do the same.

"Um." Hexadecimal said, blinking. "Shouldn't you put the spell book in your trade window first?"

Ilya stared at him for a moment, and then sighed lightly. "I suppose that's a simple enough misunderstanding to make." She nodded, pulling her feet up to her butt so she could stand up in place, hand on her hip as she smiled down her nose at him. "But that's fundamentally incorrect."

She wagged her finger. "Because the spell [Mystic Eyes of Binding] isn't something that can be copied from just any NPC. It's a [Unique Spell] that I created." She nodded. "So the method of learning the spell is completely different." She finished her lecture with a flourish. "This is something you couldn't discover even from the [Argo's Guide], so be grateful!"

Indeed, she had been annoyed at the inferiority of the game that it hadn't allowed her to output her [Mystic Eye] to a book so she could perform the trade that she had already agreed to. Eventually she had expressed her frustration by writing the GM to report such a fundamental bug in the system.

At least Kayaba-san had been appropriately helpful, even if he had the same unenthusiastic manner he always had. Fortunately he had already prepared an appropriate system in anticipation of players doing exactly this, and had thanked her with the correct amount of extravagance for being the first beta tester.

Finally, Hexadecimal spoke. "Then, um, thank you, Ilya-sensei."

Ilya clapped her hands, leaping off her rock to skip over and look up into his face, although he had difficulty meeting her eyes. "The first thing you have to know is that it's completely impossible for you to use [Mystic Eyes]."

Of course since [Mystic Eyes] was a [Sorcery Trait], the spell was impossible without functionally altering the Circuits inside the user's eyes. Fortunately for someone like Ilya who knew the high-quality alchemy of the Einzbern, which specialized in the creation of artificial humans, implanting a [Trait] as common and straight-forward as [Mystic Eyes] wasn't particularly difficult. Kayaba had even prepared many perfect holographic replicas of Hexadecimal's head so that she could work through the inevitable failures while attempting this magic she had never specifically performed before. The possibility of damage to Hexi's eyes or soul was infinitesimally low, even considering that such things could be easily and simply undone, in the [Game].

Hexi looked like he wanted to complain, but it was Itagaki who spoke up. "In that case, Ilya-san", the taller girl said with a frown, "were you lying to Hexadecimal-kun?"

Ilya stared at the other girl, shocked and slightly hurt. "Of course not!" She said, throwing her hands up in the air. "I never lie and I don't tell fibs!" She pouted, folding her arms. "Hmph."

Hexi opened his mouth, although it was hard to tell through his ninja mask. "Does that mean I have to drink a potion or prepare myself somehow, first?"

Ilya turned, and smiled up at him. "Yes! That's exactly correct!" She shot a dark glare at someone that she had thought was a friend, but clearly Asuna's judgement had been completely incorrect. "But it's even simpler than that. I just have to use a little alchemy on your head."

"Alchemy?" Hexi asked, hesitating. "So, I have to, uh, rub the Philosopher's Stone on my eyelids or something?"

She tilted her head back and forth. "Eh… not really." She shook her head. "It's typical to think of Alchemy as being a magecraft that operates around reagents and compounds, and that is an important part, but it's not quite accurate." She nodded, confident that he was following her kind explanation. "If regular magecraft is something that violates Conservation of Energy and Conservation of Mass, then Alchemy is a skill that obeys them, but only violates Entropy. It's a magecraft that performs great actions to rearrange the world rather than adding or subtracting from it. The effects are inherently permanent because it's conversion rather than creation."

"So, then what about converting lead into gold?" Asuna asked.

Ilya stared at her, aghast. "Nuclear Alchemy is really, really hard." Ilya said, amazed at Asuna's lack of common sense. "Why would anyone bother when it's easier just to purify existing substances to increase their value?" The benefit of doing so was incomparably greater than going to all the bother of actually messing around with the atoms themselves. That was even disregarding how catastrophic failures could be.

"Obviously." Asuna muttered sarcastically, but Ilya ignored her.

"So you're going to… magically transform my eyes?" Hexi said, hesitant.

"Yes." Ilya said, pleased that he kept up with her so ably.

Somehow that seemed to make him even more uncomfortable. Itagaki called his name hesitantly, but he waved her off without looking. He breathed in, and when he breathed out, he forced himself to look at Ilya. "Okay. If it's something you need to do, then do it."

Ilya didn't know why that was so hard, but she nodded anyway. "Alright! First you need to open your [Circuits]. Fill them with the tiniest amount of prana you can, and circulate it as slowly as you can." Doing so would minimize his magic resistance, but still allow Ilya to clearly detect what she was working on. It was true that it would be slightly easier to do it with his circuit closed because then he wouldn't have any resistance at all, but at the same time, it would force Ilya to perform the operation functionally blind. She had experimentally determined this way was easier.

He obediently did so.

"Good." Ilya praised, reaching up to place her hands on either side of his face, palms over his temples next to his eyes, fingers splayed back lightly tracing where his optic nerve would have been. She opened her own circuits, and dragged in as much mana as she needed. She saw his eyes dart back and forth, and heard Asuna gasp in surprise. That's right, she'd never pulled in as much as this in front of them, had she?

"Look straight into my eyes." Ilya warned. "Moving them can screw yourself up." She wouldn't take any responsibility for that at all, since it would all be his fault.

"Right." Hexi murmured.

"Good." She breathed out. She stared into his eyes, but that was an illusion. Really she was concentrating on the prana she was pouring into his head, soaking his holographic flesh until it was saturated to the limit of what she could do. It lapped up against his [Circuits]. Compared to the hollowness of his fake body, the [Circuits] were the only perfectly accurate replication of what he was in the real world.

"This will hurt." She warned. She felt him tense his muscles right to nod, although she didn't allow the head gripped in her hands to move. Then, with a rush like the ocean pouring into a canal, she forced her foreign prana into his Circuits. He grit his teeth, and his natural physiological reaction was to try and force the invasion out, to contain it and reject it.

She didn't allow that to happen, and when she judged it was right, she invoked the spell.

His [Circuits] were changed. Compared to when he first opened them and pushed the water called prana through dusty pipes he hadn't even known he had, she was forcibly ripping out sections and putting in valves and instruments that would allow the same pipes to perform different operations. Normally such an operation would necessarily entail terrible side effects, like mangled and leaky pipes from the fractured insertion, but with Wishcraft, performing it and paying every operational cost upfront with just prana was totally possible.

But the pain like fingers digging into his eyes and tugging on his optic nerves was inescapable. He screamed.

She stepped back, letting him collapse onto hands and knees.

"Hexi!" Itagaki shouted, sprinting forward.

"Senpai!" One Snow called, stepping forward with his hand coming up, although he hesitated after one step seeing that Ilya wasn't worried at all.

Hexadecimal gagged, dry heaving as his brain told his holographic body to vomit up whatever was in his guts, even though he didn't have a stomach or intestines in that form. He swayed uncertainly as Itagaki slammed into his side, throwing her arm over his back while she kneeled to look at his face. Her gaze snapped up to Ilya, and her concern flipped to anger. "What did you do?" She demanded.

Ilya frowned down. The barking of this girl wasn't scary at all, just annoying. It was like a tiny dog yapping. Certainly it could bite you and that would sting, but Ilya could crush that ribcage just by casually stepping on the bones, so the very existence of the threat was insulting in its own way. "All I did was exactly what he asked me to." Ilya testily said. "He's the only one to blame."

"You—" Itagaki began, but she stopped when Hexadecimal reached up to grip her shoulder.

"Itagaki-kun." He said, swallowing as he mastered himself. "It's alright. It was surprising rather than painful, like a rollercoaster that's too fast. I feel nauseous and disoriented more than anything."

"If you're sure." She muttered, scooting back to give him space.

"Right." Hexadecimal said, breathing out as he stood up. He frowned, looking slightly on his feet, as he glanced around. "It's…. everything looks exactly the same, but it's like there's a perfectly transparent membrane between me and the world?" He said, confused, as he glanced down at his hands.

Ilya nodded. "You're pretty good to tell. It's just that the Circuits in your eyes feel a little foreign right now, but that will wear off as you get used to how they've changed."

"I see." Hexi nodded. "That's good, then."

"Right!" Ilya said, clapping her hands together. "So, now that you have the necessary Trait, you can learn it just like you could learn a [Unique Spell] from any other player."

"I'm ready." Hexidecimal said.

"That's good." Ilya cheerfully replied, and then she opened her menu. Amusingly, the [Duel] option had been put under the [Chat] menu off the [Main Menu], probably because the Development team couldn't think of a better place to put it. However, because this new option was based on the same system, it was listed right underneath [Duel].

Yes, the new option available only to holders of [Unique Spells], the magecraft command [Inheritance].

She clicked the option, and when the same target system that the [Duel System] used came up, she aimed it at Hexi to select him.

She could see the pop up that materialized in front of him, since she was the one that selected it.

[Inherit Teaching? Y/N]

He selected the correct option.

In the air above and between them, a large announcement that was visible to everyone appeared. It listed their names in the bottom corners on either side, and there was a countdown timer starting at 30 seconds to let them prepare. Across the top was a banner text, which read [Inheritance of Magecraft Lineage].

The timer reached down to zero.

She blinked at the unpleasant surprise. It was like a phantom overlay, another person's nervous system hooked up to hers. She could feel him breathing out of time with her, swaying back and forth, his balance still slightly unsteady. Because their proprioception was linked, she could tell where his arms and legs where relative to his spine. She could feel the position of his body like a phantom presence around her own. Fundamentally it was like the sharing-of-senses magecraft that was often used with familiars, but on a completely different level since it was keyed to the senses of touch rather than just sight or hearing. Even the dizziness and nausea where there. It was so intimate it almost felt like a violation, like they were trespassing on each other's bodies.

Feeling him shiver from the sensation made her shiver, too.

"Okay!" She said, shoving aside the discomforting strangeness and focusing on the task at hand. "Now, open your circuits." She did as she told him to, and their doubled sense of body quadrupled.

Just like she could feel his own sense of his body feeding into her, she could also feel the organic mesh of his [Circuits] buried inside his body. The sensation of his prana was sticky and awkward, proof that he was still an amateur as a magus, and his fundamental capacity was pretty terrible, but if she allowed that he was actually a first generation, it wasn't actually bad at all.

"Wow." Hexadecimal muttered. "Your prana capacity is more than ten times mine." He said, shaking his head in amazement.

"Hmm." Ilya nodded. "But, if it's like this, you can understand how I can show you how to do the spell from the inside, right?"

"Yeah." Hexi said, nodding as his eyes widened with enthusiasm. "Yeah, if I can feel what you're doing, then I can follow along, it's like the [System Assist] only between players instead of using the [Motion Library] of the game for the [Skills] and [Spells]." Ilya was quite delighted to have such a clever pupil.

"Right." She said, enthusiastically. "That's why I invited the rest of our friends along, as well."

"What?" One Snow said, quietly. Then, when he realized, he slumped in place. "Oh. It's a [Curse], so you can't just shoot at off into nothingness like you could with a fireblast, you need guinea pigs."

"That's correct! 100 points!" Ilya praised.

Asuna sighed, standing up from the rock she had sat down on and walking forward. "Well, I suppose I can let Ilya demonstrate on me, then."

One Snow sighed. "Then I guess that I'll help out Hexi-senpai, then."

"No." Itagaki said, shaking her head. "Please allow me to assist senpai."

"You sure?" One Snow asked, giving her a complicated look, before he waved his hand before folding his arms again. "Well, if that's what you've decided, then I'll go along with it." He stepped back to accent his decision.

"Uh…" Hexi looked at the resolved and serious expression on Itagaki's face. Her chin went up slightly when he opened his mouth, so he sighed and gave in. "Thank you for your help." He concluded.

"Right!" Ilya clapped her hands, and turned to face Asuna.

The naturally-occurring [Sorcery Traits] such as the [Mystic Eyes] were the foundation that had led modern magi to develop the skill to implant spells into the [Magic Crest]. Like a spell carved in a [Crest], these kinds of [Traits] automatically added a spell effect to the prana just by circulating through the correct Circuit. But, it wasn't a complete effect, the user still had to put some mental effort in. Compared to pushing a button and the [Crest] operating as an automatic machine to produce a finished good without any further input other than electrical power, the [Trait] was more like a lathe that allowed the user to perform a working operation that would be impossible without it, but still required manual input.

Ilya stared at Asuna, and shaped the circulating prana into the spell. She pushed it through the [Trait] in her eyes, which accelerated it along the line of her sight and cast it into Asuna. It was like a fine mesh made of poison that sank into the taller girl's soul and bound her joints and muscles so that she couldn't move.

"There!" Ilya said. "Like that."

"Right." Hexi said with a nod, frowning at Itagaki.

Ilya could feel him gather the prana and shape it, but when he pushed it out, rather than using the Trait as an accelerator he subconsciously tried to work around it. The attempt failed and dissipated in the air.

"No, no." Ilya shook her head. "You have the [Trait] now, so you have to use it." She pointed at Asuna. "Hurry up and dissolve the curse with your [Magic Resistance] so that I can demonstrate again."

"Right." Asuna said through grit teeth. She circulated prana through her own circuits, and the natural motion of prana inside her swept out the curse and wore it away until the effect broke.

Hexi's next attempt was more successful.

Ilya nodded at him. "Good, like that, just practice a few more times and you'll get it." Then, Ilya skipped over, and sat down on the rock that Asuna had chosen. After a short moment, the taller girl walked over and sat down beside her.

"Shirou isn't with you, today?" Asuna asked.

Ilya shook her head. "No, he's decided to try out the [Blacksmith] skills, so he's hanging out with some crafters today."

"I see." Asuna nodded. "I wouldn't have picked it for him, but on second thought, perhaps it's a surprisingly good fit."

"That's better, but you have to aim with your line of sight, don't just push it out." Ilya shouted advice to Hexi before turning to address Asuna. "Yes, the most important thing is that his new hobby means he'll spend less time running around somewhere far away from me."

"That's one way to look at it." Asuna said with a sigh.

[Congratulations!]

Everyone's attention went to the new holograph that popped in front of the [Inheritance of Magecraft Lineage] banner hanging over their heads.

The bottom of the pop-up expanded downwards as a new line of text appeared.

[Player [Hexadecimal] has joined the magecraft lineage of Player [Von Ilya] and received the [Extra Spell], the [Mystic Eyes of Binding]. Please congratulate him!]

"[Extra Spell]?" Asuna said, brow furrowed. "Wasn't it a [Unique Spell]?"

Ilya was already navigating to her menus, and pulled up her [Spell List]. After reading the description of her [Mystic Eyes], or more specifically, after seeing how it changed, she frowned slightly, before talking.

"In the Beta," Ilya began, "There were [Sword Skills] that only existed in rumors, called [Unique Skills]. Supposedly they were each something only one single player could have." She cocked her head to the side, thinking. "By comparison, [Extra Skills] are things like your [Fencing] or the [Katana] skill that can be unlocked by anyone that had a high enough rank in a prerequisite [Skill]. It's probably something like that."

"Ah." Ilya interrupted her own confident nod when she received a pop-up message for herself. It had the same general format and layout as an announcement for someone who won a battle, or successfully learned a [Spell], or had cast a [Unique Spell] for the first time.

[The [Unique Spell] [Mystic Eyes of Binding] has been upgraded to an [Extra Spell]. It can now be shared using a [Spell Book] or [Magecraft Inheritance] with any player who meets the prerequisites listed in the spell description.]

Compared to the XP bonus she had received when she used her [Mystic Eye] the first time, the upgrade bonus was about the same.

Was this… was Kayaba intending to teach players to freely share their magic with everyone? No, there were concrete benefits for doing so, and absolutely no indication that the power or effect would go down. The only reason to keep your magecraft to yourself was vanity.

"I guess I should call you Ilya-shishou from now on, then." Hexi said wryly as he walked over.

"Hmm." Ilya smiled at him. "Well, in that case, your master should be magnanimous. Congratulations on your fine accomplishment, Hexi-deshi." She nodded. "If that's truly how you feel, then you should join my [Guild]. I'll look after you just like a fine big sister." Ilya nodded happily to herself and opened her menu.

"Um." Hexi said, glancing aside awkwardly. "I, we already joined a [Guild]."

Ilya was gazing down at her menu, and could see that the three of them already had a [Guild Icon] she didn't recognize by their names, a silver sword in front of a golden sunburst. Ilya pouted, crossing her arms with a harrumph as she took that in. "I could accept it as long as you didn't join that guy's guild."

Hexi winced and looked away.

Itagaki had a challenging expression, as she faced Ilya and made an announcement. "Yes, we've accepted Diabel-sama's offer and joined the [Paladins]."

One Snow coughed slightly. Since dust was only a visual effect and there wasn't such a thing as mucus inside the [Game], coughing was completely unnecessary. Then, he spoke. "To be honest, if you had asked first, then we might have joined you." He nodded with his eyes closed, showing that it was just so, although his smile made his face looked appropriate for a question rather than an assertion. "But since Diabel-sama asked first and his words were extremely moving, we were swept up in the moment and clicked [Accept.]" He rubbed the back of his head. "Of course, that makes it sound like we might regret the decision, which isn't the case."

Ilya puffed air out of her mouth to express her frustration, but at least it was just a matter of getting unlucky. In a sense, it was more like an unlucky drop, rather than bad writing that made you think there was a flag for a route that was actually impossible. That was the one thing in a game that Ilya absolutely couldn't forgive.

"Well," she drew her word out. "I suppose that is acceptable then." She nodded. "If you ever change your minds and want to join a better guild, than I will graciously accept you in with only the bare minimum of groveling."

Asuna sighed like Sella sometimes had, when she thought Ilya couldn't hear her. Somehow that always annoyed Ilya a tiny amount.

Fortunately, Ilya thought of something cool that definitely raised her spirits. "Ha ha ha!" She laughed. "In a way this is actually for the best, because now I have a spy inside the [Groupies of Diabel], now!" She continued laughing, in good spirits.

"What is she talking about?" One Snow whispered to Itagaki. Ilya didn't know why he was asking such a strangely obvious question.

After glancing at Asuna with an expression that Ilya couldn't understand because his silly mask got in the way, Hexi-deshi nodded heavily. "I'll… do my best." He paused like he was considering something, and then concluded his statement. "Ilya-shishou."

"Ha ha ha ha!" Ilya continued to laugh with the back of her hand over her mouth like a proper lady.


	27. 6:5 Hammer Time

"You... you're here pretty early." Liz said, narrowing her eyes as a suspicion occurred to her.

He looked different. Last time he'd been wearing that white one-piece outfit with the red scarf, and the time before that he had even had the [Ranger Mask] equipped. This time however, he was wearing the same basic pants, shirt, and chest-plate equipment that everyone had. Even if the blue shirt was a little brighter than the dull earth tones most people had, it was still the most normal she'd ever seen him.

It was five minutes to eight in the morning. It wasn't like she was really a morning person like Hard-san, but at least she wasn't zombie-like the way Takachan was. As a result she usually opened the shop while Hard-san went and got the raw materials they needed, and they worked the first shift, while Takachan covered the second shift. There busiest times were after lunch, when people repaired equipment between the morning and afternoon grind periods, and before dinner, when people prepared for the next day before returning to their inns to relax. The number of people who woke up early and did their equipment repairs then was low.

But, looking at how chipper Shirou was, she bet he was exactly that type of [Morning Person].

"Not particularly." Shirou said, cocking his head to the side. He was leaning against the wall of the shop building with his arms crossed, a casual and patient appearance.

"Have you been waiting long?" Liz asked, going to open the door.

Shirou looked away, and he had a sheepish expression on his face. "Since seven."

"An hour." Liz said. "You really are a [Morning Person], aren't you?"

Shirou shrugged.

"Right." Liz said, sighing. It couldn't be helped. "Well, the first thing to do is get you a [Hammer]."

"I have one." Shirou said. "I bought one from an NPC, and I've raised my [One-Handed Hammer] skill enough that the [Blacksmithing Skills] were added to my skill list."

Liz blinked, and then considered that. It was true that the basics were all listed in [Argo's Guide], so that asking another [Smith] to teach you wasn't really necessary, but even if you knew exactly what you were doing, you had to get the [Hammer] skill to fifty points before the [Blacksmith] skills appeared. It wasn't really realistic for [Smithing] to be dependent on [Combat Skills]... except the [System Assist] made questions of realism beside the point. You needed a minimum amount of familiarity with swinging the hammer; that was what the [Hammer Skill] was required for.

But still... "I was thinking it would take most of the morning to get your skill that high." She said. "How late were you up last night?"

Shirou blinked. "I got the hammer first thing this morning, and then I went and trained the [Hammer] Skill. Once that was finished I came here."

"Just how early do you get up?" Liz accused.

"Six, like normal." Shirou said. He looked confused, like he didn't understand why she was interrogating him.

Liz sighed, slumping in place. Never mind that he was a [Morning Person], his appearance in normal equipment had distracted her from remembering that he was an extremely powerful speed-type Player. He probably crashed into the mobs and smashed them to pieces before they could even respond to his blitz, and then immediately sprinted to the next target.

"Alright." She muttered, thinking. "Then, let's get started." She opened the door of the shop. Doors in Aincrad weren't secured with locks and keys. Instead, the [Owner] of a [Building] could determine who could add or removed the [locked] condition to [Doors]. Anyone could pass through an [unlocked] door, but only the people that the owner's whitelist could remove the [Locked] condition.

There was a [Lockpicking Skill] that could be used to circumvent that, but the difficulty of a [Player-Owned Door] was based on lots of factors like the basic value of the [Building], the owner's [Level] and their ranks in any [Merchant Skills], and so on. [Lockpicking] was one of the the so-called [Thief Skills] along with [Hide] and [Listen]. Of course they could be used to burglarize other Players, but they were primarily intended for use against [Chests] and similar items in [Dungeons]. There was some debate inside the Guild if one of them should go towards a thief-like build in case they needed those [Skills] to acquire materials in the future.

Well, the shop was open for business.

"There are six steps in using the [Blacksmithing Skills]," Liz began as she walked forward into the Shop, "But before you even open the [Smithing Menu] to begin crafting an item, there are all kinds of prerequisites you require."

She gestured around her, at the open room of [Takachan's Emporium]. The basic layout was a long room divided by a walkway that went to the back door. On the right side from the entrance was a long counter where the [Merchant] would stand. Hanging on the wall behind the counter was a wide array of items, materialized for display.

On the left side of the room was a [Velvet Rope] that could easily be stepped over, and behind the rope was a work-space kind of area. Takachan wanted everyone to do their work openly where other players could see them to make the shop more interesting and trustworthy; the velvet rope wasn't really any kind of barrier, more like a hint to Players that visited the Shop. But working while other people were talking or even asking her questions was really distracting, so after an argument, the back room also had all the necessary equipment, so that Liz could work undisturbed and not get distracted.

"The most important prerequisite is an [Anvil]." Liz said, pointing. There were a total of eight anvils lined up along the wall. Six were the [Large] size, but there was also a [Small] and [Medium] size as well. So far there was no scenario where a smaller anvil was better than a bigger one, except in terms of price, but Takachan was hedging against greater complexity being discovered in the [Rules].

Liz's pointing finger drifted up from the anvils to the line of brick structures behind them. "You also need a [Forge]." She said, pointing at the large structural item. They were like an open oven, a fire that consumed [Fuel] Items. There was a bed of coal-like things in the base. Right now they were dark. Compared to the real world, [Fires] were easier, safer, and more convenient. You just needed to step up to the [Forge] and change them from the [Off] to [On] setting and it would instantly be crackling away at full heat. Since buildings were all [Immortal Objects], of course something like a housefire was completely impossible.

She turned back, and smiled lightly at the super-serious expression on Shirou's face. "You also need the [Hammer] and the [Skills], but I guess you already know about that." He nodded to acknowledge her words, and she continued.

"And of course, the absolute most important prerequisite is the [Ingredients]." She said, crossing her arms as she nodded to emphasize the importance. "The [Hammer], the [Forge], the [Anvil], and even the [Skills] are all required, but they're fundamentally modifiers. They're just coefficients that are multiplied against the most important numbers, the stats of the [Metals] and other items that are used to make the [Item]."

Shirou frowned at that. Rather than disagreement, the expression on his face was more like uncertainty because he thought it was incomplete. "It sounds right." He muttered. "But couldn't a great [Smith] make a magnificent sword out of average or even poor materials?"

Liz shrugged. "Maybe in real life, but in the [Game], at least this far, that's not really true." She raised her hands out from her sides in a 'what can you do' kind of expression. "I don't know whether that's unrealistic or not, but it's the case here."

Shirou stood in place for a moment without saying anything, and then nodded. "Alright." He breathed out, and drew himself up. "So what's the first step, Lisbeth-senpai?"

Liz smiled, although it was a little forced. His seriousness made her feel a little awkward.

"It's not truly required," she began, "but the first step is to prepare the materials with the [Metal Refining Skill]." She said.

Shirou nodded, and without prompting, navigated to equip the named skill in his menu. When he nodded in satisfaction and looked up, she continued.

"Here's some [Low Quality Ore]." She said, opening a trade window. "This is a [Tutorial] so don't worry about payment or anything." She said, smiling magnanimously. For a [Hammer] or a better [Ore] she wouldn't be so benevolent, but for a small amount of something so cheap, it would probably be more lucrative to give it away and spend the extra minute gained grinding mobs then to spend a minute haggling with a [Player].

"Right." Shirou said, nodding.

Liz stepped back. "Now, approach the [Forge] and turn it [On]."

Shirou stepped forward, and approached the [Forge] and activated it when the [Item Menu] automatically popped up in front of him. He flinched slightly when it started, immediately going from cold and dark to a full burn radiating heat without any problems.

"Now, materialize the [Ore]." Liz said.

"Now, open the [Metal Refining Skill] in your [Skills Menu]." She said. As he did so, she narrated from memory. Asking him to change the visibilty to [All] was unnecessary. "You should see a popup that has a drag-and-drop screen and an [Accept] and [Cancel] button. Drop the [Ore] into the window and then hit accept." She continued talking while he was navigating menus. "You can put more than one kind of [Ore] in; the way to create [Bronze Ingots] is by dropping a [Copper Ore] and a [Tin Ore] into the drop window. You can even change the amount of material by adjusting the [Quantity] of [Ore] to the right of the name; if you only put in fifty of an [Ore] that weighs one hundred then you'll still have fifty in your inventory afterward."

Shirou decisively tapped where the [Accept] button was, and glanced at her quizzically.

"Tongs pop automatically when you materialize an [Ore] or [Metal] type item in the same room as an anvil or forge when you have any [Blacksmithing] skill equipped." Liz explained. "So, grip the [Ore] in the tongs, and stick it in the fire." She gestured at the Forge with a light flip of her hand. "You want to get it glowing yellow-hot. Red is too cold and white is too warm. There's a whole spectrum so getting it exactly right is like a minigame."

When it was about the right color, Shirou pulled the [Ore] from the fire, and set it on the anvil without being told, still keeping it in place with the tongs.

"Now hammer away!" Liz said cheerfully. "You'll get a feel for how to do it with help from the [System Assist], and you should stick it back in the [Forge] whenever it cools off too much, but for now all you need to do is practice."

She casually sat on the anvil two places away as he set to work. At first his rhythm was a little awkward and uncertain, and his blows where hesitant, but after only three strikes he settled into it, and by the fifth he was confident enough that he stood taller over the forge, his back more relaxed as he worked.

He had to put it in the [Forge] twice more, but after twenty-five swings, the [Item] changed shape, and the [Ore] officially became an [Ingot].

"Congratulations!" Liz said, enthusiastically. "You've created your first [Ingot], the most important item in all [Blacksmithing]!"

Shirou nodded distractedly, looking at the [Low-Quality Iron Ingot]. "Is it possible to improve the quality?" He asked, cocking his head to the side slightly. "And what about making it into steel? Is there any [Reinforcement] or other magecraft that can improve the results?"

Liz held up her hands. "Slow down a little bit!" She said with a laugh. "In order," she said, holding up her left hand with three fingers out as she ticked her pointer figer with her right hand, "you can improve the quality with [Metal Refining] but it takes a crazy number of swings and you don't get much XP. If you want a [Medium-Quality Iron Ingot] it's better to buy [Medium-Quality Ore]. I once spent an entire afternoon working on [High-Quality Iron] to turn it into [Premium Iron], but the stat gain wasn't anywhere near as great as just finding rarer materials like [Telluric Basalt]."

She ticked off her second finger. "NPCs have mentioned [Steel Ingots], but none of them sell them. There are a few players that have figured out the recipe, but right now it's treated as a [Trade Secret]. Of those, only a player named [Grimlock] has high enough [Weapon Smithing] skills to use [Steel]; the rest just sell [Steel Ingots] at really high prices. Supposedly [Steel] became available on the fifth floor in the beta, so most of us smiths are just gritting our teeth for now."

She ticked off the third and last finger. "Typically we [Reinforce] our tools, but so far no-one has developed magecraft to apply directly to the [Item] being worked on. There are some exciting rumors about [Alchemy], which have been mentioned by several NPCs, but none of the [Tutors] teach it, not even the [Science Witch]."

"I see." Shirou muttered, staring at the Ingot for a long moment, before he looked back up to her. "Then, what do I do next?"

"Now that you have the material, you need to equip a [Blacksmithing Skill] such as [Thrust], [Blunt], or [Slash Weapon Forging]." She said. He navigated his menus while she spoke. "Just like last time, you can open a pop-up window."

He glanced up at her. "I've equipped [Slash Weapon Forging] and activated it."

"Right." Liz nodded. "Then, you can already tell that it's got a drag-and-drop window just like [Metal Refining] did, but it's grayed out until you finish the inputs above it."

"In [SAO], the [Weaponsmithing Skills] all follow the same five steps." She said, holding up five fingers this time. She blinked, leaning back slightly from the pressure of his gaze, before she mastered herself. "Um, the first step is to pick a [Weapon Skill] from the dropdown list at the top of the [Forging Window]. You might notice that it's not the same as the [Weapon Skills] you have or even the [Skills] you know about. For slash, you probably have all the basic Axe and Sword skills, but you don't have the [Katana Extra Skill] because your [Slash Weapon Forging] isn't high enough. Right now there's a race among the [Blacksmiths] to be the first to get there, since the top Smiths are close. Just pick one for now."

"[One-Handed Straight Sword]." Shirou announced as he made his selection.

"Okay." Liz nodded. "Once that's selected, the two windows underneath ungrayed, and auto-filled with the default values for that kind of Weapon. Those are the [Length] and [Weight] of the item. You can move it up or down with the arrows on either side of the bar, or if you doubletap on the bar itself, you can open an input screen. Those are the second and third steps of [Forging]."

"I'll leave them at default for now." Shirou said.

"That's good." Liz nodded. "Once you click the [Accept] tab beside each of those inputs, the drag-and-drop window will ungray and you can put [Ingots] or other items in for making the weapon. You see the line at the bottom labeled [Total] that you can't adjust? You have to set the weight of all the items you choose to match the [Weight] input on line three, otherwise you can't click [Accept]."

Shirou nodded, and he did the distinctive whipping motion with his fingertip of someone dragging an item from one menu to another and dropping it in, before he adjusted the amount of material he added and clicked he [Accept] button.

He made a kind of hilarious face as he did a double-take, and then looked at Liz.

"Yes, this is the fifth step." Liz said. "After deciding on the inputs, now you have to choose what performance you'll prioritize as outputs. So if the first window was all about what you wanted to go into the sword, the second window here is all about how you want the sword to be used."

She jumped slightly, lifting herself up to sit on the anvil, feet dangling, as she straightened her back and crossed her arms. "In [SAO], weapons are characterized according to those five properties. In the Beta it was possible for Smiths to upgrade them, but now they can only be improved by the [Player] enhancing them with magecraft."

"[Sharpness], [Quickness], [Accuracy], [Heaviness], and [Durability]." Liz recited without having to look. "They don't directly map onto the [Ability Requirements] or how much [Damage] the sword does. These are something that's completely unprecedented in games, they're more like, [How the Sword feels]." She nodded. "It's true that Sharpness has an impact on Damage calculation, but it's more like how much the sword resists being pulled through the target. Likewise, the [Durability] parameter doesn't actually govern the [Durability Statistic] of the sword; it's a poor name choice in that sense. Rather, it's more like, how much does the sword forgive rough or imprecise handling by the player. So the [Durability Parameter] is more like resistance to reduction in the [Durability Parameter]." Her eyes were a little unfocused as she thought about it deeply. "These are things you'd only need in a [FullDive] game where the player is handling the item directly." She shook her head lightly, and then smiled at Shirou as she refocused.

"What's important is that this is where you customize the sword to a particular style of play." Liz said. "Those five values start at 20%, and you can adjust them up or down on a one-for-one basis so that the total adds up to 100%." Liz nodded. "Personally, I think this is the most important part of [Player Smithing] compared to [NPC Smithing], because a Player can match the performance of a sword to the [Customer], but an NPC can only change those five parameters randomly."

"I see." Shirou said, as he rubbed his chin. "So for [Asuna], you probably decreased the [Heaviness] and increased the [Quickness], right?" He frowned, looking down. "Since she's precise with her motions she might not need the added [Accuracy], and since the current monsters don't usually have high armor values [Sharpness] is also secondary... considering how rough she is with her [Magecraft] then you probably prioritized [Durability] next?" Shirou said, looking up.

Liz crossed her arms, sighing. "Eh... not really. You're right that increasing [Quickness] and decreasing [Heaviness] was important, and I ended up chasing my tail with the remaining three like you did." She shrugged. "But there's a rule in Smithing that you should only deviate from 20% for a clear reason, because there might be unexpected changes to performance otherwise, so I kept [Sharpness], [Accuracy], and [Durability] all balanced at 20%." She wagged her finger at him. "It's really tempting to make something crazy like setting four of them to 5% and having the last one at 80%, but generally we find that the more unbalanced a weapon is the harder it is to use." She nodded in conclusion. "So, if you want to make something special, I think it's better to focus on the quality of the materials first."

Shirou nodded slowly. "Yes, that makes sense." Then he glanced down at the menu. "So, for now, I'll just leave them all equal." When she hummed an encouragement, he reached up and tapped [Accept].

Like before, an [Ingot] materialized, held in his hand by a pair of tongs.

"The Sixth and final step." Liz said. "Hammer away until it changes from an [Ingot] to [Equipment]. Just like before, you have to keep the color exactly correct, so use the [Forge] to heat it up to the right temperature."

"Okay." Shirou said, and he turned to plunge the [Ingot] into the bed of burning coals in the [Forge].

After only a few strokes of his hammer, Liz stopped paying attention. There was no need to supervise, since he basically had it. She had thought that correcting his posture for the differences between swinging a hammer like a weapon and swinging it like a tool would be the most critical thing they did today, but he picked it up just from the [System Assist] without her having to say anything.

There was a bell on the door that rang when it opened, and Liz glanced over as Hard walked in, although Shirou's concentration remained perfectly on what he was doing.

"Hey." He said in greeting, before his eyes flicked over to the boy at the forge ignoring everything around him.

"Shirou-san decided to try out [Blacksmithing], so I'm the tutorial." Liz explained. "How did shopping go?"

Hard shrugged. "Fine. The price of [Ores] are bouncing around a lot on a day-to-day basis. I think the [Cardinal System] hasn't stabilized the economy yet." He shrugged. "I ran into Nezuha."

"Oh?" Liz said, raising an eyebrow. He was probably one of the top five [Smiths] if you just looked at his [Skill Ranks] and [Equipment], but according to rumor, he had a really high fail rate. Nobody asked to his face, but already most of the [Merchant Players] wondered if he was cursed by the RNG or if it was something more suspicious.

Hard made a sour expression with his face, but it was gone quickly. "Yeah. He asked if I heard any rumors about new Ores, but I said no. He did say that somebody checked with [Ancient Harry] and there's supposed to be an [Alchemist] on this floor." He glanced down, before looking up again. "Well, I got about fourteen kilograms of [High Quality Iron] since the price is down. I don't know where the price is going to stabilize, but I made an aggressive bet."

Liz hummed, thinking if there was anything she wanted to say.

However, a sound effect from behind them drew their attention.

Shirou turned, holding a [One-Handed Iron Sword] in his hands. Hard started clapping, which made him flinch in surprise, but Liz joined in, smiling at him. He grinned awkwardly, embaressed that they were making a big deal out of it.

"You can input a new name if you like, using the popup," Liz explained.

"I just accepted the default name. It's a regular piece of equipment." Shirou replied.

"Then, congratulations!" Liz said. "How do you feel, [Swordsmith-san], now that you're officially a [Crafting Player]?"

Shirou stopped in the middle of stepping forward, frozen in place. He was like a piece of machinery that was turned on but not activated, sitting motionless but still fully powered.

Finally, a smile crossed his face. It wasn't anything big. It didn't have the sincere joy or euphoria of the expression that he'd had when he'd smiled after saving them. This was more like a smile of pride, or at least self-contentment. "Yes, I guess I'm a [Maker of Swords] now, in the game."

"So what are you going to do next?" Liz asked.

"Try again." Shirou said simply, turning back around even as he called up a menu.

"What a studious guy." Liz muttered. She had been trying to ask a more leading question about whether he would be joining their Guild or something more like that, not whether he was going to keep practicing without taking a break to celebrate.

I I I

Shirou clicked through the menus. At his level, he only had three [Active Skill Slots], so right now he had [One Handed Hammer], [Metal Refining], and [Slash Weapon Forging] equipped. He wasn't sure if it was necessary to keep the Hammer weapon skill active, or if doing so provided a bonus, but for now he just left it. He could explore that or ask questions later.

He frowned as he prepared another piece of [Ore] for [Metal Refining]. He understood what was going on generally, but he wanted to know more. He wanted to understand more. Since it was just a piece of raw earth and not an armament he couldn't read it just by looking at it.

"Ah." He muttered to himself, as he realized something basic.

He set the materialized [Low-Quality Iron Ore] down on the anvil, dropping it slightly as he let it out of the tongs. He set the tongs down beside the [Ore] on the anvil, and hesitantly reached out.

He could pick up the [Ore] item barehanded without any problems.

Shirou closed his eyes and breathed out, and he pulled the trigger to flip on his circuit. He tentatively fed prana into the hammer to reinforce it. It was surprisingly hard, since he wasn't trying to improve it's performance as a weapon, but rather as a tool. But it was hard because it was unfamiliar, rather than because it was unnatural. Indeed, using his magecraft to [Improve Swordsmithing Tools] felt like an obvious and simple thing to do. If anything, he was a little embarrassed that he hadn't tried all ready.

With that addressed, he turned his attention to the [Low-Quality Iron Ore] in front of him. He picked it up, turning it around in his hand, as he stared down at it. He breathed in.

"Trace: On." And he breathed out as he threaded his prana out from his fingertips and into the item he was touching, synchronizing with it and exploring it. The basic shape built up in his mind. The wireframe model in the game was much simplier and totally complete compared to the real world, since everything in the game was fundamentally made of triangles.

He read deeper, into the composition and not just the structure.

"Ah." He muttered.

Fundamentally, all [Items] that could be used in [Blacksmithing] were created as the same kind of [Object]. Yes, they were all the same kinds of [Object] made up of the same [Variables]. The [Name] of the [Object] was used as an input to determine the range of the [Variables]. So if Liz were to go and buy a [Low Quality Iron Ore] from a vendor, then it would automatically create an [Item] by taking the [Object] and completing it by filling in appropriate values.

And those variables... the first one was simple. It was just the weight of the object, in milligrams, although the unit wasn't part of the value but instead just a comment as a reminder to prevent a logical error later on.

That left 84 remaining variables. They were the names of the Atomic Elements listed by number from Hydrogen at one to Polonium at 84. No, 10 of them were automatically set to zero; Hydrogen, Helium, the other Noble Gases, and then Florine down through the remaining Halogens, all were automatically set to zero. So it was only the remainder that were truly [Variables]. These were all values that could range from [0.0] to [100.0] and had to add up to [100.0] exactly; they were the percent-weight-by-mass of the [Ore].

There had been more variables. Compared to the rigidly realistic values of the [Atomic Numbers], these were completely fantastic, properties dealing with [Magical Elements] and similar things. However, that entire category, the third category of [Unrealistic Properties], had been completely disabled by Kayaba. Rather than rewrite the code to remove it, he simply changed the original definition of the [Object] so that they were always zero. With that one simple maneuver, he completely negated all [Unreal Materials].

It was time for the next step.

Shirou thrust the [Low Quality Iron Ore] into the [Forge].

"What are you doing?" Liz screamed.

Shirou startled, twitching in place as he spun, still holding the [Ore], to gaze at Liz, who was staring at him in horror, with a completely aghast expression on her face.

"Well?" She demanded, with a worried and angry tone.

"Um." Shirou stalled, but eventually gave up trying to guess and said the obvious. "Putting the [Ore] into the [Forge] so I can [Refine] it?" He made it a question just in case.

She just stared at him like she didn't believe him, and then Liz responded with her own demanding question. "Bare-Handed!?"

Shirou shrugged. "I can't use [Structural Grasp] with the tongs in the way."

Liz sighed, rubbing her face with her hands. "But doesn't it hurt to reach into a fire?" She asked something like it was obvious.

"We're in a [Safe Zone]." Shirou pointed out something equally obvious. "There's no way I can take damage so it's not a problem."

"I asked if it would [hurt] because of the [Pain]." Liz said, shaking her head. "I already know you can't take damage, but it's not like the [Pain] system is disabled."

"It's not bad, so that's not a problem either." Shirou replied. It was true that it hurt, that it was painful. However, it was completely an illusion to begin with, and even then, he was used to much more severe pain all those times he'd foolishly struggled to create a Circuit.

Hard finally spoke, after he finished studying him. "Did you perhaps [Reinforce] your hand so that it wouldn't be a problem?"

That was a good idea. Shirou was a little embarrassed it hadn't occurred to him, so he immediately did so. "Yes." He replied, to answer Hard's question.

Liz sighed, slumping in place. "Tell me that first next time." She wasn't looking at him, so his nod was wasted. Well, that was fine.

Shirou turned back to the [Forge]. He studied the metal as it heated up. He continually refreshed the image in his mind with his [Structural Grasp], emitting the pulse of prana using his hearbeat as a metronome, watching as the parameters changed. Simply looking at the [Color] was too vague, so this was much more reliable.

When the [Temperature Attribute] was exactly correct, he pulled it out, holding the [Ore] in place so he could hammer on it. He synchronized his hammering with the same metronome to make it easier for himself, pausing whenever he wanted to add heat whenever the [Temperature Attribute] deviated from the perfect value. No, it was imprecise to call it the [Perfect Value]; rather, it was the optimum temperature that each blow removed undesired [Atomic Elements] from the [Ore], changing the [Percent Mass by Weight]. Frankly speaking the mass of the [Ore] should have gone down slightly with each blow but that had been rejected by the programming team. Instead what happened was with each blow, the percentages were pseudorandomly changed, biased so that numbers below 10% tended to decrease and numbers above 10% tended to increase. His [Skill], the [Temperature], the [Quality of Tools], all were included as inputs to skew the pseudorandom number in appropriate ways.

Finally, he performed the correct number of blows to complete the [Metal Refining].

When the [Low Quality Iron Ore] transformed into an [Ingot], he gasped slightly, staggering in place as his magecraft connection with it allowed him to follow the transformation.

Inside the [Cardinal System] was a table.

If a graph with an x and a y value was a table with two axises, then this was a table with 84 axises. It created an 84-dimensional space, one for each [Atomic Element], one for each of Iron Copper Nickel Zinc Chromium Manganese Cobalt Scandium Titanium and Vanadium, and every other group period and block, and the table measured along the appropriate distance for each matching [Variable] in the item.

The [System] traced along the [Axis] for each and every [Atomic Element] until it found the correct [Percent Mass by Weight] and then read to the vertex where every value for each [Atomic Element] connected. At that vertex was a reference index that determined the specific and correct [Alloy] that the [Ingot] was and read what its [Yield Strength] and [Modulus of Elasticity] were, to determine its performance as a metal. Brass, Bronze, Manganin, Fernico, Invar, Spiegelseisen, Steel (High Carbon), Steel (Low Carbon), Steel (Tungsten), Stainless Steel and Mangalloy, Pewter, Alnico, and Osmoiridium, every alloy ever measured ever quantified ever named was listed. If the specific vertex was empty then the values were determined using 84-dimensional linear transposition. The 84-dimensional space was solved with linearized simultaneous algebra. No, it wasn't just the [Yield Strength] and [Modulus of Elasticity] that were listed. Those were the only values that were retrieved that were considered that the game needed but there were many others listed. Any and all possible parameters were listed. Temperature conductivity electrical conductivity thermal strain dependence magnetic dipole all measured properties were prepared in case they would ever be needed should ever be called could ever be required.

Inside the [Cardinal System] was a table. And inside that table was a complete listing of all alloys and metals known to all human science. It was a complete oversimplification that just considered things by mass without even thinking about heat treatment (in this version, in this iteration; the system should be future compatible the code should be extendable the knowledge should be completeable). It wasn't a hard or difficult thing for someone (Kayaba Akihiko Koujirou Rinko Isaac Crowley Miura Shiina) to assemble that table; merely a tedious exercise in pouring through many reference books, consulting the publications of many foundries, assembling the contents of many databases, and examining many metallurgical texts. But the result was a vast and complete record of human knowledge that related to [Metal].

"Shirou?" Liz shouted again, vaulting over the anvil between then to grab his shoulder. "Are you okay!?"

"Yes." He said, shaking his head, clearing it. His teeth were clenched together, but because his body was a hologram, there wasn't any pain or soreness in his jaw muscles. "I'm fine." His eyes focused and he smiled at her. "I just saw something surprising, so I was amazed, or rather really impressed."

Liz stared at him, mouth open, before she finally closed it and spoke. "You were impressed by... a [Low Quality Iron Ingot]?" She grabbed it out of his hand, inspecting it before she went back to examining his face. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"The [Item] was just a path I followed." Shirou said, shaking his head. "It was... it's just that what was at the end of the path was unexpectedly close to being a fraction of the real thing, so I was surprised."

"What?" Liz asked.

Shirou shook his head. The dizziness was receding so that wasn't a problem. "For now, I just want to complete the sword." He nodded, giving Liz a reassuring smile.

She studied his expression for a long time before she made a put-upon sigh and spoke. "In that case go ahead, but be careful, okay?"

"Right." He absently responded as he turned back to the [Anvil]. Now that the materials were prepared, it was time to begin the construction of the sword properly.

He activated the [Menu] and called up the [Slash Weapon Forging] Skill, and then clicked the button labeled [Forge Weapon].

Just like last time, the same creation menu popped up. He clicked the dropdown selection box and picked the [One Handed Straight Sword] as the appropriate [Weapon Skill]. The length and weight autopopulated. He considered those values, breathing out as he pondered deeply. He increased the length by about 10% and the weight by about 30%. That was closer to his idea of the kind of sword that Kirito would need, for example.

He dropped the [Low Quality Iron Ingot] into the [Materials Input Selection], and changed the weight input of the amount of the Ingot to match the target value from the selection above it.

He clicked accept, and hesitated over the [Parameter Percentages] Menu. Finally, he adjusted the [Quickness], [Heaviness], and [Accuracy] to 18% each and increased the [Sharpness] and [Durability] to 23% each. Anything more would probably be too much.

Shirou nodded and hit accept, and the ingot appeared again. Like before, he discarded the tongs to hold the [Ingot] directly in his hand so that he could Grasp the internal structure for a complete and thorough understanding of what was happening.

He brought the [Ingot] to the same temperature parameter as before, and then struck it with the hammer. Like before, each hammerstrike started up a pseudorandom number generation that was dependent on his [Skill], his [Tools], and the [Item] and its [Temperature] value. The target value for turning an [Ingot] into a [Sword] was higher, so he adjusted the item appropriately with the forge and continued.

The number of strikes was a function of the how many randomized inputs the weapon needed. Naturally that value went up with the number of calculations, so as a rule, stronger weapons needed more strikes because their parameters were higher. It was also a function of size so that larger and heavier weapons needed more strikes.

He fell into a rhythm, striking the [Ingot] precisely according to the [System Assist]. Compared to fighting, it felt strange that he didn't have a superior concept of the motion. That was probably because this was an idealized simulation and not what actual blacksmithing would be like. It wasn't just a matter of his own ignorance, he instinctively knew that what he was doing was fundamentally unrelated to the real world.

He breathed out and threw the thought out at the same time as he raised the hammer, and brought it down again, focusing on striking each blow perfectly.

Naturally he counted, but it was an automated function, not something he did with his concious mind, which was resting firmly on the next strike.

After twenty-seven blows, the process was complete, and in his hand, it turned into a sword.

He was prepared, so the mass of calculation wasn't a surprise.

If the [Metal Refining] was a way to determine the materials perfectly without regarding anything else, then the [Blacksmithing] determined the geometry perfectly without anything else. The length and weight were used to calculate a basic planar cross section of the sword the distal taper was determined the dorsal taper was determined the Rotational Moment of Intertia was calculated the Second Polar Moment was calculated the Harmonic Frequency was calculated the counterweight of the pommel was determined the design was iterated everything was recalculated to optimize towards the design parameters calculations iterated calculations iterated calculations iterated all parameters accepted all check phases accepted computation complete.

He watched, as the Item in his hand began glowing, the visual effect starting as it began to change shapes from an [Ingot] into a [Sword]. The [Item] was defined and the calculations were fed to the physics engine to create the model the parameters were passed to the combat engine to determine the damage dealt during collision detection and the check phases accepted the [Item] was complete.

Shirou held up the sword. It was a normal [Iron Longsword] that could be bought from any NPC smith for a pittance (for his level). Maybe the [Item stats] were high compared to what you'd expect simply from his [Skill Rank] and his [Materials] but not excessively so. He reached up to the item name, and paused. He would need a better and more efficient way to name the swords he produced. But this one hadn't started from a single concept and he'd only hypothesized a basic structure halfway through so this was fundamentally a failure.

He would come up with a nomenclature later. For now he just clicked accept on the default name.

Liz stepped over, hands on her hips. "So, after that, how did it turn out?"

Shirou handed the sword to her as a response.

She took it, and whistled appreciately as she [Appraised] it. "That's pretty good for a beginner." She said, turning her [Appraise Skill] on him. "You're talented... or lucky."

Shirou shrugged, the hammer dangling from his hand, as he looked aside. That reminded him. "Liz..." he began, "what kind of item is the [Coal] you said you used to fuel the forge?"

Liz blinked at him, and then navigated her menu, materializing an [Item]. It was a single unit, a [Lump of Fuel Coal]. "Here." She simply said as she handed it to him. It didn't leave any dust or stains on her hand afterwards.

Shirou took the [Item] and inspected it. In the past, iron was improved into steel by carburizing it with combustion products of the coal or charcoal used to heat the forge. Since that was impossible with the way the blacksmithing system was written in the game, perhaps there was another way to accomplish the same effect with a roundabout method. But that would only be possible if the [Coal] had certain parameters.

His Circuit was still thrumming with prana, so when the [Lump of Fuel Coal] dropped into his palm, he was able to use [Structural Grasp] on it without any delay.

Yes, it had the same [Variables] as those other objects, it could be used as an input for the [Metal Refining Skill].

"Liz-senpai," Shirou confidently announced, "I'm going to make steel next." Yes, there was no doubts. If there was one thing that Emiya Shirou could unfailingly achieve by instinct, then that was definitely creating steel.

"Huh?" She said, but he was already turning away from her. He couldn't afford any distractions.

The mind of Emiya Shirou dreamed of Steel.


	28. 6:6 KC4BG 3

"Hiya!" Ilya swung her sword, plunging it into the enemy, before ripping it free, smiling as the enemy burst into pixels.

"You should really be more careful." Asuna scolded, not turning from her own opponent, the second of the giant centipedes that had tried to pincer them.

"Don't worry about it so much." Ilya dismissively said, waving her hand.

"Oh." She smiled, as the ground shifted. "More XP!" Crowing like that, she raised her sword.

What burst from the ground was a bigger, heavier, thicker centipede then before, that was a deep red like blood, its mouth parts slavering as acid dripped from its mandibles to splash hissing on the ground.

"A field boss!" Ilya said, excited. She raised her sword, entering the stance to use [Horizontal].

Like that, the monster whipped its head around, plunging its mandible into her side and ripping sideways with a savage lashing motion.

"What!" Ilya cried, surprised, as her HP went down by half. She tried to prepare another skill, but before she could, the great centipede headbutted her, pinning her to the ground between its fangs.

"Ilya!" Asuna screamed, somewhere behind her.

Acid ate away, and the last of her HP went to zero.

[Game Over]

"Hmm." The voice that spoke was deep and rich with a tone that hinted at kindness that was definitely not kind at all. "I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised that you would wind up here, in Kotomine's Church for Bad Guys."

Ilya pushed herself up, glancing around as she took in her surroundings.

The high white arch that loomed over the pews that marched forward beside her towards that altar, this was definitely the Kotomine Church, and the man who spoke was definitely Kotomine Kirei.

"Yes," He said. Even though he was just musing aloud, he was clearly doing it for Ilya's benefit. "Because no matter how hard you pretend, unlike those two, goodness simply isn't in the nature of this Emiya at all."

"Does Kayaba know you're doing this?" Ilya said, glancing around without acknowledging what he said. "I wouldn't have thought he'd let you get away with something like that."

"Hmm hm hm." Kirei laughed easily. "If that's what you think, then you should relax and understand this is beyond the ending. You should understand what kind of scenario that is better than anyone."

"Tch." Ilya clicked her teeth. "It's not like getting ganked by a field boss was even a scene in the story to begin with, so there's not even a choice that I made incorrectly. This is just railroading." Somehow, her complete lack of inhibitions when it came to criticism even extended to the flow of the story when the conditions were right.

"Perhaps," Kirei agreed warmly without any hesitation. "However, perhaps you should consider that this is a result of you triggering too many pride flags, and experiencing your inevitable downfall."

"That's impossible." Ilya said, dismissing the possibility and maybe confirming it at the same time. "Since I'm the Route Heroine, my plot armor is three times thicker than a normal heroine's."

"Are you?" Kirei asked a simple question with words as pointed as a spear. "Aren't you just receiving the kindness of an older brother, while his heart remains in another dimension outside time and space?"

"I won't allow it."

The words that interrupted them were an absolute command. Sitting up at the very front of the church, just by speaking his word forced their attention to him. With an arm indolently thrown over the back of a pew, that golden-haired man fixed them in place even as he levered himself upright. His red eyes were hypnotic, like the gaze of a hawk you wouldn't turn away from in case it took that instant to pounce on you and pierce you.

Even as he walked with deliberate steps to stand in the aisle like a main character, Kotomine pursed his lips and eyebrows in an expressive manner and spoke. "What you won't allow... is that Ilya being anything but the Route Heroine?" With sincere puzzlement, he deliberately asked an outrageous question.

"What? No." The great king of everything dismissed that with a swing of his hand, before pausing. "Who?" He asked, as he realized he had no idea to whom Kirei was referring.

In response, Kirei just turned his head to look at Ilya.

"That's not important." He swung his hand to completely dismiss such a minor character, the magnificently cut dark coat swinging in place on his noble frame. "But you said something that I completely object to." His gaze pinned Kirei. "And naturally anything objectionable to the king is an abomination that goes against nature."

"Naturally." Kirei easily agreed.

"What I object to is saying that something as contemptible as that Faker could put his organ inside her pure dimension. That is an absolutely inviolate fortress that will protect her purity until such a time as I deign to step within her." Saying something suspicious, the King walked forward.

"Yeah!" Ilya agreed, trying to seize the camera of the scene. "I won't let Oniichan love anyone other than me!"

Kotomine just shook his head mournfully. "But you should already be aware that they exchanged a vow after he came inside her special place." The priest said something even more suspicious, and then smiled as if he just realized something. "Of course, you were both indisposed, so you might not have been able to witness such a touching thing."

"Tch." The King clicked his tongue in annoyance. "If that's the case, then I'll have to take action."

With a line like that, he waved his hand, and a phantasmal curtain appeared behind him, a distortion that opened in space like a purple aurora.

"You promised not inside, after last time." Kirei said, with something like resignation.

"Behold!" The King declared in glee. "the original game!"

"Pong?" Ilya muttered.

But it was a golden Famicom. Somehow it was obviously a [Famicom made purely of gold] rather than just a mere [Gold-Plated Famicom]. There was a cartridge of pure gold inserted that was from an ultra-limited release of just one edition, that was labeled [Gil-Sama's Big Adventure! Gold Edition!]

Ilya revised her opinions and asked another question. "But if there was only one copy, how can it have a [Gold Edition]?" She tilted her head to the side as she asked, finger tapping her lip.

"It's a self-titled, self-published doujin." The priest helpfully explained. "The legendary super-terrible game where you start with everything already in your inventory."

"Silence. The king's gloating must be attended with perfect reverence and no interruptions." Their byplay was interrupted by an outrageous command from the immaculately confident one.

He swung his arm. "If the premise is [Everyone is Trapped in a game], then obviously there is no better possible game to be stuck in then this! Yes, I will graciously allow everyone to fill the roles of the NPCs, and even allow selected players to go so far as to respond with one line of dialogue when addressed by me!" After making an offer that was stupendous in many ways, he continued, smiling with an expression like a shark in a feeding frenzy. "Yes, I won't allow that Faker the role of even a midboss, and she will be just one of the many routes that can be conquered!"

"Whatever." With a shrug of someone that gave up, the priest turned away, leaving the King to bask in his own glory like a golden crown abandoned in a hall of mirrors.

"So do you understand?" Kirei warmly asked Ilya. "Your own insignificance?" He nodded with great surity. "Only once you can accept that in your heart can you grow out of your childish egotism. Although the tantrums of a spoiled child being hushed is good in its own way." The priest finished saying something ominous with a beatific smile.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Ilya truthfully answered. "Since I wasn't really paying attention."

"Don't worry." He patted her head consolingly. "If you do not learn this lesson from me, I am confident you will gain it from the greater world sooner or later, and naturally I will be prepared to receive your confessions at that time." After saying something kinda priest-like and kinda ominous, he nodded, before turning to address the front of the church with a warm smile and a twinkle in his eye. "Until next time."


	29. 7:1 Kirito, Argo, and Shirou

The main city of the third floor, [Danzac], was also built on the south slope of the tallest mountain of the third floor. The main street was a broad boulevard that relied on switch-backs to reach from the [Great Temple] that contained the Teleport Gate down to the [Main Gate]. That road would have been too steep otherwise. However, it meant that rather than crossing [Main Street], all of the secondary roads radiated outward from the switchbacks in Y-shaped intersections. They were counted downwards from the Temple, so the branch from the first switchback was [1st Street], the branch from the second switchback was [2nd Street], and so on up to [nth Street] for any given switchback.

However, after that, any sense of central planning immediately ceased. Whether any [Street] went up or down the slope was completely random, and it was impossible for tertiary streets branching off them to be perpendicular because then they would be too steep, so as a rule, every single intersection was at something like 30 degrees.

Well, as a result, navigating [Danzac] was a hassle because it was easy to get lost, and even before then, it was usually easier to stay in [Urbus] or the [Starting City] and just commute using the [Teleport Gates].

Of course, in compensation for that, it meant that it was even easier to monopolize the kind of hole-in-the-wall places that delivered a value of 150 for a cost of 120 like Kirito preferred.

His favorite kind of [Bed-And-Breakfast], this house on one of the nameless alleys that connected [2nd Street] and [3rd Street] rented out the entire third floor, an opulent room furnished with something like [Persian Rugs] for wall hangings, and cushions instead of chairs, was an exotic and interesting place to stay. As a bonus, the roof was a cafe-like place that served a meal that served delicious kabobs and something that was like coffee. The kabobs required talking to the landlady long enough to trigger a [Fetch Quest] on the [Second Floor]. Compared to a normal fetch quest that relied on tenuous connections and nonsense, gathering [Eight Cow Shanks] so that those [Beef Kabobs] could be made was completely logical. The only sacrifice to [Game Logic] was that only players that had completed the quest could order food.

The delicious food made possible by his own effort in completing a sensible quest, eaten on this high roof under a clear and crisp sky with a magnificent view stretching out across the whole Floor with a cup of warm [Almost Coffee] in his hands, was it even possible for this to get better?

"Hey, Kiribou." His companion said, nursing her own [Almost Coffee] with a slightly resentful look on her face. "I'll increase my offer to 200, but I won't go any higher than that."

Yes, there was a way for it to get better. And that was, while enjoying all of the above, to also be teasing Argo with her ignorance that she didn't know how to achieve such a thing. She would certainly be able to figure it out on her own, and she would even if the opportunity cost of the time she would spend doing so was worth more than 200 Col. That was guaranteed just so she could uphold her pride as the [Information Broker who Knows Everything].

On the other hand, even for someone who instinctively pinched every Col like himself, the chance to tease her was also worth more than those 200 Col.

"Hmm." Kirito sighed, closing his eyes and relaxing on the thick carpet, sprawled back from the low table leaning against a heavy pillow. "Since we're such good friends, I'll generously apply a discount, and tell you for a low price of 500 Col."

She gave him a suspicious look, her eyes almost glowing yellow between the hood and the cup raised in front of her face. "Is that all my friendship is worth to you?" She asked with a slightly sharp and offended tone.

"You're right." Kirito nodded in total agreement. "It's a complete mistake to mix business and friendship, so I shouldn't give you a discount." Then he raised his cup to sip, and deliberately made an obnoxious slurping sound effect as he did so, as a hilarious way to punctuate his sentence.

"Tch." Argo clicked her teeth and also nursed her beverage, letting the hood cover her eyes as she brooded. "If you make a mistake then the appropriate thing to do is own up to it, rather than pretending there's an undo button you can click whenever it's convenient for you." She looked up from her cup, staring at him in suspicion. "So, based on the counter-offer of 500, I'll go up to 250."

Kirito sighed, shaking his head. "Well, since I continue to learn from you, I suppose going down to 450 might be fine."

"Kirito." Argo said with an annoyed voice. "I'm beginning to think you forgot about what we were even talking about and just focused on [Winning the Argument]. Can you really say what you're offering is worth more than 300 at the absolute maximum?"

Kirito hummed, tilting his head to the side and resting it on his upturned palm. "So, you're offering 300, then?"

"No." Argo countered. "I wasn't offering 300, I was saying that it was shameless of you to ask for more than 300 in the first place." She sipped, perfectly mimicking the [obnoxious sound] he had made earlier. "So, after talking about it, I realized it was unrealistic to offer more than 150."

"Ugh." Kirito said, as the elbow resting on the table slipped and pitched out from under his head. "That's lower than before."

Argo stared at him with beady eyes, asking him if he was really asking such an obvious thing just with the expression on her face.

He sighed, before opening his trade window. "Fine, fine, 250 then."

"200." Argo shot back immediately. "And no higher."

"That's fine." Kirito agreed, giving in. He paused after clicking accept, as he realized that Argo had paid exactly the price he thought it was honestly worth. He shook his head, and explained the method of the quest.

He was just finishing up explaining the last dialogue tree when a holographic rectangle blinked into appearance before him. "Ah." He blinked, sitting up in mild surprise as he read the [PM] that had appeared in front of him.

"What is it?" Argo asked.

"100 Col." Kirito replied without blinking, even as he read the [PM], before sitting back, thinking. Shirou had just sent him a short message of [stay where you are, I'm on my way], but he didn't include any further information. Kirito didn't think it was an emergency, so really he just wondered whether it would be presumptuous to order food or a drink for Shirou, or rude not to.

"You're no fun anymore." Argo complained with an aggravated voice.

"Hmm." Kirito mused. "Well, I learned this game from a great master, but I didn't realize she was someone that only had fun while she was winning." He sipped from his cup again.

"Even if you praise me that much it doesn't make me feel better." Argo retorted.

Kirito decided the best compromise would be to order a drink but no food for now, but offer it when Shirou showed up. Appropriately, he tapped the table to bring up the dialogue to buy more food, and ordered another [Almost Coffee], which instantly materialized on the table. That was another advantage of these kinds of secondary quests; because the programming didn't bother with adding all the interactivity of a waiter, the service paradoxically became better since whatever was ordered just instantly materialized like they were in a certain TV show.

"Just be patient and you'll find out." Kirito said easily.

"Hmph." Argo went back to her [Almost Coffee], crossing her legs more tightly as she turned partially away from him.

Thankfully, that was about when Shirou showed up.

"Hey." With a distracted wave, he came over.

"Here." Kirito said, pushing the [Almost Coffee] forward on the table. "I don't know if you'd already eaten or not."

"Huh?" Shirou said, blinking as he looked down at the cup, then up at Kirito. "Thank you." He said, sitting down and scooting forward slightly so he could rest his elbows on the table, reaching forward for the cup, although he paused before he brought it up, looking past Kirito. "Um." He said, slightly hesitant.

If it was Argo that had asked Kirito definitely would have whipped that super-reliable [100 Col] line out again, but since it was the other person who asked, that wasn't really an option.

"Shirou, meet Argo." He said by way of introduction, gesturing towards his original dining companion. "Argo, Shirou." He added, gesturing towards the new addition to the table.

"Oh?" Argo said, with an inquisitive smile as she shuffled around and forward to face fully towards the new person. "So, this is the super-famous [Sixth Ranger], huh?" Saying something a little strange, she inspected him as if he was sincerely fascinating.

"And you're Argo, the information broker, right?" Shirou said, returning her attention with his own steady gaze. When she nodded in confirmation, still with that sharp and slightly enigmatic smile that made Kirito a little nervous, Shirou also nodded, closing his eyes.

"I see." His eyes opened, and then he bowed deeply even though he was sitting, hands resting on his knees. "Thank you very much. I deeply appreciate everything you've done."

Argo blinked, slipping sideways slightly as her tension gave way to complete surprise. Kirito was also surprised at such a non-sequitor, but he also enjoyed the wide-eyed and gobsmacked expression on the girl's face.

"Um," Argo said, clearly searching her memory, before giving up. "For what?"

Shirou relaxed, straightening up, before returning her studying gaze. "For the [Argo's Guide]." He said, nodding seriously. "Because you freely provide such an excellent resource, many [Players] have been protected from danger. So, I want to express my respect and admiration for everything you've accomplished."

Argo's expression was slightly queasy, her smile a little guilty as her gaze darted over to Kirito, who just shrugged uncomfortably even as he nodded to prove that everything Shirou said was serious, that it wasn't being sarcastic.

Because, from Argo's perspective, information only went in the Guide once it became such common-place knowledge that the price dropped so low it wasn't even worth her time to sell it anymore. At that point, it was added to the advertising that continuously reminded everyone who the best info dealer was. Maybe there had been special additions released like before the [Illfang Battle], but that was an exception, not something that obeyed the fundamental rule of [Argo's Guide].

"It's nothing, really." Argo said, laughing uncomfortably as she brushed off the praise.

"Even if you think so." Shirou allowed. "It's still true, so I think it's important to sincerely thank you."

Kirito said nothing, using the cup as a prop to take another sip to keep himself occupied even though he wasn't thirsty. Argo was the kind of person that was weak against sincere praise, and when she felt it was undeserved, that was a coefficient of at least three.

Well, as someone who knew both of them, Kirito could understand both Shirou's gushing and Argo's discomfort. It was one thing to tease her, but this was something different.

"The last I heard," Kirito interrupted dryly, "you were holed up like a hermit, even neglecting the club activities of the [Sixth Ranger]." Ilya had expected that changing classes to a [Blacksmith] would mean more free time, but instead, Kirito hadn't even seen him since then. Based on her complaints when they were mapping yesterday, Ilya was barely better off, since he left early and returned late like a proper Japanese salaryman.

"Ah." Shirou shrugged uncomfortably as Kirito changed the subject, having the grace to look sheepish. "Well, it was frustrating that I couldn't work with [Steel], so I had to grind my skill to meet the minimum requirements."

"So it's true that [Takachan's Emporium] has also learned the recipe for steel, eh." Argo mused, returning to the conversation once she had re-centered as an information dealer. "Do you think he'd be willing to sell it to me? None of the other smiths will."

"Oh?" Kirito said, raising an eyebrow. "Could it be that there's a secret that even the [Great Argo-sama] doesn't know?"

"I'll tell you this for free." Argo replied without looking his way. "You're not cute at all."

Kirito sighed with an exaggerated expression.

"So, I'll pay you 50,000 Col for the recipe for [Steel]." Casually, Argo made an almost outrageous offer. Kirito sat up, amazed.

"Don't misunderstand." Argo said, shaking her head, once she saw they both had incredulous expressions. "I'm not trying to sweet-talk you. Because the [Blacksmithing Skill] was clearly designed with the assumption that players had full access to wikipedia and the unlimited data of the internet, it was brutally hard. Even during the [Beta Test] no one discovered the recipe. It didn't matter because [Steel Ingots] were available for purchase by the end of the second week of the [Beta] when we reached the fifth floor. So the crafting players completely abandoned the quest, and I also abandoned it since there wasn't any profit." She crossed her arms, slumping in place. "But the situation is completely different, now."

Yes, Kirito understood. The difficulty of the game [SAO] had dramatically gone up. Certainly the unbalanced and strange [Thaumaturgy System] made it harder, but there was an even more fundamental reason. Compared to the maximum difficulty setting of a normal game that was called [Permadeath] where the character was deleted and you lost the tens of hours you sunk into the game, the difficulty setting of [Player Death], of losing every possible hour of your remaining lifespan, was thousands of times higher. Therefore, the benefit of a higher safety margin was also thousands of times more valuable. It was just a rhetorical trick, but in that sense spending 50k in this difficulty setting was the same as spending 50 Col in a game with a regular setting.

And there was no guarantee that [Steel] would be available on the [Fifth Floor], rather than the tenth, or the fortieth. The game was already too different, this desert-like floor full of giant centipedes was already far away from the [Elven Forests] of the [Beta].

"I see." Shirou mused. His brow was furrowed, and he was sitting with his arms crossed and a bothered expression. Even if the thought process was completely different, Kirito was confident his conclusions were the same.

Finally, Shirou slapped his thigh. "Well, if it's for the [Argo Guide], I'll tell you everything you want to know."

"...eh?" Argo asked, non-plussed. "Wait, the price..."

Shirou nodded, eyes closed with a serious expression. "Right. Ideally steel should be between one and two percent carbon by weight, so adding an appropriate ratio of the [Coal] item with an [Iron Ingot] during the [Metal Refining] step is the basic step. Well, depending on the quality of the coal you might need more to account for impurities like phosphorus and sulfur, and of course the inclusions of the metal should be identified so that you don't hit the target, but those can both be accomplished with [Structural Grasp] so it's not a problem."

"Wait wait, slow down." Argo said, furiously typing. "What was that about [Structural Grasp] again?"

Shirou studied her, watching her frantically type away, and then spoke. "You know what, I'll just PM you with the details."

"Really?" Argo said, glancing up at him with a suspicious and hopeful expression.

"Of course." Shirou said, nodding.

"Deal." Argo said, sticking her hand out.

Shirou blinked, and then shook her hand with a smile.

"Now, as for payment," Argo said, putting on a brave expression as she called up the trade window. Kirito sympathized. 50 kiloCol was a huge amount of money for this point in the game. Argo probably had a relatively large buffer of money compared to most players who turned it into gear, but spending so much at once would leave her dangerously overleveraged. In the worst case she wouldn't be able to buy new information until she recouped some of the investment.

"Like I said, that's not necessary." Shirou said, brushing her off.

"What?" Argo said, dumbfounded.

"Since it's something for the [Argo's Guide], naturally I'll tell you for free." Shirou nodded.

Kirito covered his mouth, as Argo's amazement turned to horror, as she realized that from the beginning he was the kind of guy that believed in the ideals of the utopian Free Software Movement and used Linux. Rather than charging a high cost, he offered a devil-like bargain that her cost would be zero, but her profit would be zero, too. Or rather, since he would tell anyone who asked for free, he was automatically setting the price of the information at zero. She never had a chance to profit from the [Recipe] from the beginning. The only choice he was offering her was "will it appear in the [Argo Guide] or not."

"That's..." Argo sighed heavily, slumping forward like she had taken critical damage from a psychic-type attack. "That's fine." Her conclusion sounded like someone being savagely forced to offer a concession.

"That's good." Shirou said, nodding.

"Is that information even yours to give away?" Kirito asked, voicing a suspicion. Even if he was hanging out with them a lot, he wasn't actually a member of the guild [Takachan's Emporium], so he might not have the authority to hand over their trade secrets so casually.

"Hmm?" Shirou said, with a confused look on his face. "What do you mean?"

Kirito thought for a bit, and when it sounded right in his head, he spoke. "Well, in stories when a master blacksmith teaches a disciple the secrets, it's with a strict condition of secrecy, like an oath at midnight to never speak them to an outsider or something like that." Kirito waved his hand in an appropriate accompaniment to his dramatic words. "So if Takachan taught you to make steel, is it okay for you to tell us like this?"

Shirou's expression only became more confused. "But they didn't teach me how to make steel."

Kirito was about to ask a stupid question like 'who taught you then', but revised it at the last minute so it was at least 30% less stupid. "You mean, you figured it out yourself?"

"Of course." Shirou said, blinking.

"Hmm." Argo leaned forward, rubbing her chin with a speculative expression. "You mentioned something about measuring the properties with [Structural Grasp]. Did you perhaps reverse engineer it from an existing [Steel Ingot] doing something like that?"

In Kirito's opinion that was definitely a time to respond with that [100 Col] line, but Shirou was still new at the game, so he made a beginner's mistake and answered for free.

"Well, something like that." Shirou said, looking off to the side, with a complicated expression on his face.

"What is your rank in [Structural Grasp] anyway?" Argo asked. Kirito recognized the question. Not specifically, but it was a standard tone and cadence that Argo used to ask a question she wanted the answer to but was trying to imply it wasn't worth charging for when she actually though it was. So she had to balance sounding interested so people would feel socially obligated to answer against sounding so interested they realized she'd pay for it. Even up to today Kirito still fell for it sometimes.

Shirou completely failed his saving throw versus Argo, so even though his expression got even more complicated and uncomfortable, finally he answered. "1,000."

There was no doubting it considering the delivery and the source, but frankly speaking, it was a ridiculous answer.

"You," Argo said, licking her lips as she bought time to work through her own surprise, "you already have a [Mastered Spell] this early in the game?" It was a weird spell to pick, too, Kirito thought. It was true that Shirou was apparently the kind of guy to focus on the basics, but there were limits, even so.

Shirou sheepishly nodded. "Well, I wouldn't say I've mastered it. There's still a lot of ways I could improve, but... I guess I've taken it as far as Cardinal can go, by comparison." What started off sounding humble turned into a completely outrageous claim.

"Why are you here?" Kirito asked, suddenly.

"Eh?" Argo turned to glance at him with a surprised expression as if she also realized he was there, but Shirou's expression was... strange. It wasn't grateful or surprised or sheepish anymore; it was deadly serious. Rather than uncomfortable, it was like the emotions were turned off and it was a machine that turned to look at him.

Belatedly Kirito realized he could have phrased that better. "I mean," he said, "why did you come here, to us, now? Rather than continue to sharpen your skills in your hermitage, that is." He chuckled uncomfortably. It had been a bad way to put it, but it had suddenly occurred to him that his own curiosity was distracting him from how uncomfortable Shirou was getting, until he belatedly tried to change the subject again.

But then Shirou had made such a strange reaction. Well, it was gone now, as Shirou went back to the same gentle smile he usually had.

"Um." Shirou said, quickly tapping through his menu. Finally, he paused, with his finger hovering over a button. "You said if I came across something better I should give it to you, so..." he tapped the button at that point, "here."

What he had pushed was the [Materialize Item] command. What appeared was a sword. It was a long and straight sword with a mild taper in a simple sheath made of black wood. The handle was wrapped in dark leather. The crossguard was simple but with an elegant curve that flared so the tips pointed straight outward and the pommel had a shape like a drop of liquid that was about to wick off the end of the handle.

Kirito automatically reached out to take the extended sword. He popped the blade free from the sheathe, drinking in the appearance. The very edges of the blade were polished to a smooth shine, but away from the edges the flat side of the blade was filled with complicated whorls that looked like the grain of wood or like swirls of ink in water. It was a beautiful sword.

And then he blinked as his eyes focused on the holographic rectangle that popped up between him and the sword, and when he read it, he couldn't hold back an amazed whistle.

It was the best sword Kirito had seen in the whole game. Not just in the [Official Launch] but even in the [Beta Test] this sword was the best, the greatest, the most impressive. It was on the heavy side of average weight exactly like he preferred but the [Durability] was high even for that. The damage parameter was incredible. The capacity for improvement with [Reinforcement] looked like an error, it was so high. It was magnificent.

And the name...

[MatchKirito.30Heaviness.007]

Kirito paused, taking it that software-development-like name. "Shirou," He asked, "about the name..."

"Hm?" Shirou said, blinking. "Oh, would you like me to change it for you?"

Kirito imagined having something like this listed in his inventory. "Well, yes." He admitted. "But mostly, I was wondering why it's named... the way it is." Having equipment named after him was a little... it made him feel like a seven-year-old who studiously wrote his name on all his toys.

"Well, the concept I used to make it was [Matching Kirito's style] and the hypothesis of the basic structure was to make [Heaviness at 30%], and that was the 7th attempt."

"The first six weren't good enough?" Kirito murmured, feeling self-conscious. Yes, if he was a seven-year-old boy, then he imagined this mix of giddiness and guilt would be his feelings if someone gave such a boy a present worth a huge amount of money.

Shirou shrugged. "I wasn't satisfied that I matched the image, so I broke them down to the materials and tried again."

This time, it was Argo's turn to interrupt and direct the conversation away from a friend's weakspot by asking a leading question. "So, why don't you give it a try?"

"Right." Kirito agreed, deciding to put down the awkward feeling and just pick up this amazing equipment for now. He stood up with an excited smile, pulling the sword out of the sheathe fully, swinging it experimentally in a circle around his hand, before he took a proper stance.

[Horizontal]. The sound of the sword swinging was more like a musical effect than a weapon effect.

[Diagonal]. The shining line was crisp, balanced so well that it was almost like the sword automatically jumped according to his thoughts rather than following his hand.

[Reaver]. It was an ominous flash and crack of lighting and thunder extending out from his hand rather than just a weapon.

"So, it's pretty good, huh?" Argo asked, dryly.

"100 Col." Kirito said. He tried to scowl, but he couldn't keep the delighted smile off his face.

"I'm glad you like it." Shirou said. His smile was wide, too, and even though it lacked the same giddiness as Kirito you could tell it was just as sincere.

"Hmm." Argo said, musing. "How would you like to accept a little [Quest] then, Shirou-san?"

Shirou blinked, and Kirito paused, his sword dipping slightly as he parsed what she said. She wasn't going to ask him to join just like that, would she? Ah, she would, if she thought she could profit from it.

"Even though Kiribou is a good friend and a lucrative client," Argo said, flashing him a superior smile as he scowled at that questionable endorsement, "I didn't join him exclusively for the pleasure of his company during breakfast. Since you've raised some flags, I'll offer you the same [Quest], to accompany the cute Argo as she explores a certain part of the floor. What do you say, would you like to help?"

"I would be happy to." Shirou said, smiling.

"Right." Argo nodded, pushing herself up from the table. "Well, let's go then."

"Right now?" Kirito asked. It was clear Shirou was thinking much the same thing.

"Yes." Argo said, putting her hands on her hips. "It wouldn't do to keep a lady waiting, would it?"

Kirito had already made three different jokes in response to that kind of remark, so it wasn't worth the effort since it wouldn't even be funny. Instead he just rolled his eyes as he muttered agreement. Well, to be honest, he didn't have any objections since he would get to try out his new sword.

I I I

"Right." Argo said.

They were huddled close beside a tall rock, or rather, a huge boulder, with an oblong shape resting over a crevasse that split open the desert ground. Off in the distance to the east the mountains were visible, but all around them were only rippling dunes of sand. They were in a valley between two such dunes, watching as the wind scattered whirls of sand across the edge of the dune. They were insulated from the wind here where it was calm, but they could still hear it blowing.

"This is one of three known entrances to the [3rd Floor Dungeon]." Argo explained, slapping the rock. "Our objective today is just to do some mapping, because I believe there should be another entrance." She nodded. "This matters because there are still a few undiscovered [Town] locations, and I think the [Last Town] will be right next to an unknown entrance."

Shirou guessed that she was saying it for his sake since Kirito had a completely unsurprised expression on his face.

"So let's check our gear, and then we'll descend into the dungeon." Argo concluded, and then led by example, opening her own menu and checking her equipment.

Shirou nodded, and opened his own menu, double-checking his equipment and items. He materialized his [Steel Scimitar], and flicked on his Circuit so he could [Reinforce] it. He noticed that Kirito was also checking the enchantments on his equipment, his expression distant but concentrated as he focused on using his Circuit.

Argo was just adjusting her equipment, shuffling around as she slid a pair of wicked-looking claws like gloves on her hands, flexing her fingers into fists and back to check the fit. She also adjusted a bandolier with things like needles in them.

"What are those?" Shirou asked.

"Throwing picks." Kirito answered. "They don't do much damage and the accuracy isn't too great, but they're the only ranged weapon in [SAO], so they're an absolute necessity for soloers." He paused, and gave Shirou a look. "Well, most soloers, anyway."

"I see." Shirou nodded, filing that away. It was something to consider.

"If we're ready, let's descend." Argo said.

"Right." Kirito agreed, shifting the sword in his hand.

"Of course." Shirou said.

Argo jumped, leaping with her feet pointed together and her hands up as she arced into the chasm that split out from under the bean-shaped boulder.

Kirito followed, and Shirou jumped third.

There was an instant of falling as he plunged into darkness, and abruptly the daylight filtering down switched off, even as the acceleration stopped and he just floated in place. After an instant of that, dim purplish lights switched on as he abruptly started falling again. He landed in a crouch, and then stood, sweeping his gaze around like his party members.

They were in an open cavern-like space, with tunnels shaped like cracks that branched outward in every direction. Compared to the dry desert air above, there was a slight dampness here, and there were occasional drip sound effects. Organic-looking blooms of rock rippled blob-like from the walls over small pools of water and moist fangs of rock slowly closed towards each other from the ceiling and the floor.

The only unnatural thing was the spiral staircase that was carved into the rim of one wall, circling up from the ground level to the top of the cavern where it ended in the absolute darkness of transition between the [Floor] and the [Dungeon].

The light was coming from smears of something like fungi or moss, that glowed a strange purple-green.

"Okay." Argo muttered. "We're heading north, so I'll light a torch item."

"I don't know that's such a good idea." Kirito muttered, glancing around. "The mobs on this floor are drawn to light, heat, and vibration, so we should be careful around here."

"That's why you two are along." Argo said patiently. That she was responding patiently was a pointed rebuttal to Kirito saying something she already knew.

Kirito just stepped back, holding his hands up defensively.

Argo sighed. "We're not trying to get through to the second layer as fast and safely as possible. We're looking for secret doors. So even if it gives us a penalty on encounter checks, the most important thing is to negate the penalty to spot checks."

"I see." Shirou nodded. His Circuit was still open, but the prana inside was quiescent. "Trace. On." He muttered; this was something he'd never specifically done before, so complete focus was necessary as he started the prana flowing, and poured it into his eyeballs, sharpening his sight, but especially increasing the light sensitivity. The room brightened to his perception, until everything was as clear as under a noonday sun. "There." He sighed, glancing around.

Kirito stepped forward, examining his face from close-up, before he finally spoke. "Did you use [Reinforcement] on your eyesight?" He asked.

Shirou nodded casually, a little surprised Kirito even had to ask. It was a pretty basic use of human Reinforcement.

"I'll also try." Kirito announced, breathing out. He closed his eyes, focusing, breathing deeply and slowly, before he also looked up. He blinked, looking around. "Huh..." He said, slightly amazed. "I feel like someone who put on the glasses they never knew they needed all along." He blinked, as his gaze traced along some of the glowing mold, frowning. "I think I got the color balance wrong though." He admitted.

"Your eyeballs are a strange yellow color." Shirou added.

"Uh, and I took a few points of HP damage." Kirito muttered, glancing at his HUD. "How embarrassing."

"You'll get it with practice." Shirou said with conviction.

"How nice." Argo muttered, watching them with her hands halfway between folded over her chest and reaching for her menu, like she didn't know what to do with them.

"If you're not confident in your [Reinforcement], then I can do it for you." Shirou offered. "You'll have to be careful about circulating prana in your head to avoid removing the spell though."

"I don't think that will be a problem." Argo said. She glanced at Kirito quickly, and seemed to straighten slightly at whatever she saw there, before stepping forward towards him. "Let 'er rip." She muttered.

Shirou reached up, placing his hand against her head, fingertips resting on her brow and around her eyes, breathing on. "Trace, On." He sighed, flowing prana into her head carefully.

She stepped back, blinking, as she looked around. "Wow." She said. The amazement in her voice was tinged with something sour, but her eyes were wide as they darted around. "So this is what you could do with [Magecraft], huh?" She said.

"It's something simple, so anyone could do it." Shirou demurred.

"Yeah, I guess." Argo said, before turning. "Come on, let's go."

She darted forward, running lightly to the north. "The area around the entrances are thoroughly mapped, so we need to get to the rims that weren't explored as completely." Kirito and Shirou darted after her. They juked along a winding series of passages, just following Argo as she confidently picked between different branching paths. They were ambushed by a [Cave Worm], but Argo just nimbly jumped over it and kept running, so the two boys also just ran past, letting it fall away behind them.

Their first stop was a shaft that cut straight down, where the cave ended abruptly around them. "This is a passage that skips all the way down to the fourth layer." Argo announced, pointing downwards. "But I want to see if it also goes up." She leaned over the edge, peering upwards towards the roof.

Shirou also looked, from a different perspective.

"This is a lot easier than I thought it would be." Argo said. "Compared to trying to guess from the light of a burning torch, this is really simple."

"Hm." Kirito said. "It looks like this is no good, though." He sighed, shaking his head, before glancing at Shirou. "You know, this is something I've noticed a few times, but could it be you already decided on your Aria?" He asked Shirou.

Shirou blinked. "Well, I suppose." He said. "I mean, I know it's a little atypical to use the same Aria for everything, but it works for me."

"That's not quite what I meant." Kirito said, shaking his hand. "I mean, since [Aria] is like an optional bonus rule for increasing the chance of spell success, most players haven't even... well, I say decided on it, but the NPCs make it sound like it's something you discover."

"There's also a faction that thinks they're a crutch." Argo added. "That if you announce your spells [Cardinal] will consider that, so eventually mobs will appear that keep track, and you'll end up giving yourself away."

Shirou pondered that. He thought about his own experiences. "If it's compressed into a single line," he decided, "then it doesn't really matter, because it's not like there's enough time to prepare between the Aria and the action."

"I see." Kirito murmured, rubbing his chin. "That makes sense." Then he nodded, before turning to face the quest leader. "Well, where to next, Argo-sama?"

"Just follow me." She replied, taking off at a run again.

They darted through corridors and winding paths, sliding over and around rocks. The broken and sharp edges where the earth had cracked open contrasted greatly with the almost organic appearance of the slowly growing deposition rocks.

They had just entered a cavern where the tunnel they were following opened up as it crossed over another, the floor falling away into a gallery. Shirou had pulled up next to Argo with Kirito on the other side, as Argo consulted her minimap, when it happened.

It was a vague but definite sensation, like walking up to a house in the cold of winter when your breath froze and the chill was sharp on your lungs and in your nose, and opening the door and stepping into the too-warm house, and there was a woozy sensation as something like a membrane of the hot air was pierced before the body could adapt.

His Circuit was already open and he had already squeezed Od into it, so all he had to do was circulate it. The sickly warmth of the effect was scorched away by the blast of prana, one heat chasing another out of him.

His attention immediately snapped around, looking for whatever had tried to enchant them, but next to him, Argo slumped in place. He reached out, grabbing her arm, before she could plunge forward off the ledge. He braced himself strongly, but it was unnecessary because Kirito reacted exactly the same way on the other side of him, grabbing her other arm so she wouldn't tilt forward. Kirito pushed Argo towards him, scanning around as his hand went to the [Picks] at his side.

Shirou gathered Argo up over his shoulder, pulling her off Kirito and stepping back from the edge to clear the line of attack for Kirito. Even so, his gaze scanned back and forth, looking for the attacker. When he saw something like motion, his eyes snapped to it, and the instant he noticed it, the cursor and HP bar of a monster popped up. "There." He pointed with the hand not supporting Argo.

"I see it." Kirito easily replied. He took a stance like throwing a dart, and whipped his hand forward, the needle-like pick in his hand glowing brightly as he launched it with the [System Assist] to pierce the enemy.

It was a corpulent worm-like thing, with a face like a tick and short legs it used to cling to the wall. It didn't have anything that looked like an attack mechanism like claws or mandibles, and it didn't look like it had high mobility.

Therefore, it was logical to assume there were other monsters here.

"Look..." Argo rasped, head down as she sagged in place. "For something green...usually there's one here." Yes. Clearly Argo had identified the effect on her and was aware of the threat. If she was telling him to look for something else, than that meant she knew of a second monster.

Since Kirito was scanning the front, Shirou twisted to look behind them.

An emerald green centipede was emerging from the wall, crawling out and soundlessly approaching. It paused when he turned, looking up towards him with multifaceted eyes.

It hissed, abandoning all pretense of stealth as it charged at high speed.

Shirou stepped around in a wide circle, putting his back between Argo and the monster as he set her down, before continuing to spin, keeping himself in between Argo and the monster as he smoothly stepped forward to slash the centipede with his scimitar.

It chittered, reeling back and around with abrupt and rapid motions, but he side-stepped, slashing it twice with a down and across motion. Like he anticipated, it was trying to get around him towards the paralyzed Argo. Rather than keep himself perfectly between the monster and Argo, then, he allowed himself to be slightly off the line. The monster would always try to approach through the apparent opening, so anticipating what it was going to do was simple. Once, twice more it tried to advance, and he drove it back.

"Clear over here." Kirito announced.

"Clear here." Shirou said, when the green centipede burst into pixels.

Kirito whistled. "Was that an [Emerald Centipreditor] that came from behind?"

Shirou checked the congratulations popup to verify the name. "Yes." He replied.

"A [Poison Mob] and a [Paralysis Mob]." Kirito mused. "It isn't typical to see more than one status effect type in one encounter, especially without any general attack mooks." He stepped forward, putting his hands on Argo's shoulders, pulling her upright. He stood for a moment, eyes closed, as he breathed slowly.

After a moment, he spook. "Better?" He asked. "I think I got the curse without removing the [Reinforcement], but..."

"It's fine."Argo said, standing up stiffly. "The effect is a little dulled, but it's still mostly there."

"I can reapply it." Shirou said.

Argo twisted to say something, but stopped herself, apparently thinking better of it. When she spoke, her voice was slightly subdued. "Thanks. I'll take you up on that later, but I'm still good for now."

"Alright." Shirou replied.

"This is where I wanted to inspect anyway." Argo said. She pointed up and forward. At the center of the gallery where the tunnels crossed, there was a large crack in the ceiling. "I wanted to climb up in there and look around, but I can't come here alone." She walked forward, touching the wall. "I probably have the highest climb skill in the game right now, but I'd appreciate it if you two spotted me as I go along." She added, with her back turned to them.

"Of course." Kirito agreed. He walked to the edge of the precipice, looking down, and carefully jumped, landing in a crouch on a flat slab of rock that jutted out from the side of the cave.

Argo was picking her way across the side of the wall, climbing sideways along the wall as the floor dropped off as it crossed the lower tunnel.

Kirito walked over, standing underneath her. Shirou jumped down to land on the same flat slab he had, and then picked across the floor to stand beside the other boy.

"The way falling damage is calculated in the game, it doesn't matter how far you fall, if someone else catches you, you don't take damage." Kirito explained, addressing the curiosity that Shirou couldn't quite articulate. "It's a compromise between making climbing straightforward and fun, and also between having realistic penalties. Well, it's easier on the game if it doesn't have to deal with all kinds of calculations for pitons getting ripped out of the rockface and stuff too." Kirito gestured at Argo, who was creeping sideways across the rockface. "So rather than have realistic climbing gear, the safety equipment is having a spotter to catch you."

"I see." Shirou replied. He watched intently as Argo worked her way sideways, extending a foot or hand out and feeling around for a gripping point, and then drawing her body, spider-like, across the rocks.

After Argo had gotten halfway across and had paused, craning her head back to look around, Shirou thought it was a good time to ask. "Hey." He began. "About... back there, what... what happened?"

Kirito was quiet for a long time, but since he was obviously thinking about how to answer, Shirou didn't press him, until he replied. "That's something you have to ask Argo about, not me." He said.

"I see." Shirou replied. He didn't say anything more.

Argo had started moving forward and up, advancing along the roof, so they took turns between watching her and glancing down, checking their footing on the crooked ground.

When she reached the lip of the crevasse she had been aiming for, she reached in and flipped around, pulling herself up into some kind of cavern.

After a few minutes of waiting in anticipation, her head popped out over the edge. She shook it with a mildly disappointed look. "There's just a treasure chest up here." She shouted down.

"What was in it?" Kirito shouted back.

"100 col!" Argo replied.

"Cheapskate." Kirito muttered, before looking back up towards her.

"What's that?" Argo called down. "I couldn't hear it over the sound of the violin-based BGM for [my heart bleeds for you]."

Based on his expression, Kirito chose the better part of valor. "You coming down then?" He shouted.

"Yeah! So catch me!" She shouted, before leaping out. She hung in the air with her arms and legs spread out like a flying squirrel, but she tucked around as she fell, pulling her arms tight against her body and her legs up as she curved her spine.

She cleanly landed in Kirito's outstretched arms, her back across his right arm and her the crook of her knees perfectly on his left arm. With a practiced motion, Kirito dipped her down and she jumped forward, lightly landing on her feet.

She stopped in place when she saw that Shirou was watching them. "W-what?" She demanded.

"Nothing." Shirou said, shaking his head.

"That's not what people say when they really mean it's nothing." Argo tartly countered.

"You two really cooperate well, that's all." Shirou finally settled on.

"When you say it like that, it almost sounds like you're implying something." Kirito said with a heavy sigh.

"And why do you say that like it's disappointing?" Argo demanded.

Shirou winced, because Kirito had make the absolute mistake of just sighing again in response. Compared to all the girls Shirou knew, it was just the closest match rather than an exact match, but Argo had the same kind of personality as Mitsuzuri Ayako, where she completely lacked the sensibilities of a young lady but still had the sensitive heart of a maiden. Or to put it directly, she was someone who didn't act like a girl but swore revenge on anyone who said so.

"So what's the next location we're going to?" Shirou asked.

With a haughty sniff, Argo marched forward, brushing past them with almost comical exaggeration as she ignored them.

Shirou met Kirito's eyes, and they both naturally shrugged at the same time before turning to follow her.

They were in one of the lower tunnels compared to the entry of the gallery, but it sloped upward as they climbed, until it returned to approximately the same level as they had started out on.

Argo led them through two more intersections, but paused at the third. It was a room like an antechamber, where three tunnels converged, each sloping gently down and away. The roof sharply sloped up into shadow, but the angled surface was flat, so the room felt naturally slanted even though the floor was perfectly level.

She was frowning down at her map. "I want to check both directions, but I haven't decided which way I want to go." She explained without looking up.

Shirou nodded, but Kirito was frowning as he stared at the ceiling. He glanced down at Shirou, and since he had a quizzical expression, Shirou had to ask. "Is there something up there?"

Kirito shrugged, his head tilting sideways because he was unsure. "Well... because I didn't use that [Reinforce Eyesight] effect correctly, all the rocks have kind of a yellow hue, but the roof here is totally black."

Argo blinked, looking up from her map. "What do you mean?" She asked.

Kirito just shrugged again, repeating the gesture to accent his uncertainty. "It's like... it's almost like the roof of this room ends, rather than fading into darkness."

Argo tapped her lips. She was looking straight up into the shadowed top of the room, but her eyes drifted down, tracing the sloped wall that fed straight up into the darkness. "A flat wall angled away with plenty of handholds and footholds without gaps..." she muttered. "You know, this is the easiest-to-climb wall I've seen in the whole dungeon." She glanced at her companions speculatively. "Since you both use light equipment, I think you two should be able to challenge it without any problems, even if you don't have the [Climbing Skill] actually equipped."

She started forward, but stopped. "Even so, I'm going to go first to check, okay? So spot me first while I scout."

Without waiting to hear their reply, she turned back, running forward to get a jumping start, launching up with her hands and feet extended to smoothly catch on the wall, and without even pausing, immediately started swarming up the wall with the easy grace of a rat.

After she disappeared into the shadow effect, there was an expectant pause as they waited.

There was a light effect, and she materialized out of nothingness, hanging in the air, before she dropped down on the ground next to them.

"Good job, Kiribou." She praised. "Now come on up and check it out!"

Kirito glanced over at him, and when Shirou nodded his head with a gesture like 'after you', Kirito looked at the wall, then at Argo, then back at the wall. "Okay." He said, reaching out. "Let's do this."

Shirou watched as Kirito climbed.

"I'll go last." Argo said, once Kirito was high enough that there was room for Shirou to climb. "So that I can spot you if you fall."

"Will that be okay?" Shirou said, looking over the much shorter girl.

She seemed to understand his concerns, so she just nodded. "Yeah, it doesn't matter what level you are, even a level one character could perfectly catch someone no problems."

"Alright then." Shirou said, turning and reaching out. "Let's give this a try."

Methodically, he climbed up the wall and through the Dungeon Gate.


	30. 7:2 Shirou, Kirito, and Argo

The hole opened up into a well with a ladder in it; the transition effect for exiting the dungeon went from climbing the rock wall to climbing the ladder, and after reaching the top and pulling himself up to sit on the lip of the bricks, he easily managed to put his foot on the ground.

There was desert in every direction, although the edge of the Floor was visible off towards the northwest. The crust-like dirt gave way to the rolling dunes to the south, towards the center of the floor. But, directly to the north was a small town. It was a huddle of low-slung buildings that were only one or two stories tall. The whole town was surrounded by a wall that had been weathered until it wasn't really possible to tell what it was made of anymore.

When they crossed into the town, the name [Tu] appeared.

"Okay!" Argo said. "It's still midmorning, so what I propose is we break up and explore town for a little bit, and then we'll meet at the center of town at noon for a lunchtime review meeting."

"Sounds good!" Kirito replied cheerfully, and the two immediately broke away, almost running in different directions as they excitedly began to explore.

Shirou shrugged, and went a different way then they did.

He was thinking about what had happened in the cave, more than anything else.

He had just come along on a whim; because he had happened to finish the sword that morning, and he'd seen in his minimap that Kirito had happened to still be in town, he'd decided he might as well hand it over. Argo had invited him on a whim and he had agreed on a whim. Frankly speaking he'd wanted to go back to the forge but Liz had started getting snappy with him, so he thought he should give her a little space. Since she had been so helpful every time he had a question, he couldn't fault her for getting exasperated with him interrupting her.

Well, the result was, this quest was something completely unplanned.

Even so, if he hadn't come along, then when Argo was paralyzed and Kirito was distracted, they would have been attacked from behind by a tough monster. While Argo couldn't move, they would have been ambushed.

Could they have won without him there? Kirito had once called his desire to save others self-centered because it disregarded that people could possibly save themselves without him there.

But... would that have been the case this time?

No, more than that, how often were incidents like this happening? He had done his best to save as many people as he could, but even so, the very fact he had been necessary on this quest that he had never even intended to go on proved that just trying to save as many people as he could wasn't enough.

So, in that case, what would they have required to save themselves without him there? Was it something he could prepare for them?

He was walking down a dusty street, and a sign hanging from a door caught his eye. It was a weapon shop.

He went inside, and automatically returned the automated greeting of the NPC shopkeeper. He paused at the irony of that, before chuckling to himself.

He walked forward to call up the shop display and see what was for sale.

He was looking to see if there were claw-type weapons, and if so, what their parameters were, when he heard the door open behind him. He turned and looked, as Argo entered the shop.

"Hello." He greeted, right before the NPC also called out his greeting.

Argo blinked. "Oh, hey." She answered, before walking forward. "So what tier of gear does this shop sell?"

"Tier?" Shirou replied, feeling confused. Well, it was a familiar confusion. Even after all this time, there were still instances where Ilya would use a game term that he wasn't familiar with. So it wasn't surprising that that would be the case with other people as well.

"Never mind." Argo said, rolling her eyes as she walked forward. He stepped back, leaning against the wall, thinking, as she scrolled through the menu, eyes darting back and forth as she wrote some kind of memo in her menu.

"What?" She finally asked.

Shirou touched his tongue to his teeth, only opening his mouth once he knew what he was going to say. "Back in the cave..." he began, faltering. Even though he knew how to begin, he didn't know what to say next.

"Oh. That." Argo said, hand pausing in place for a moment, before she went back to typing, although slower than before. "Did Kiribou say anything?"

"Only that I should ask you." Shirou replied.

"I see." Argo said, perking up slightly, before she sighed again. She had finished what she was doing, so she closed her menu. "Hey, Shirou..." she began. "Kiribou trusts you and I think I see why, so even though this is just hypothetical, it's one million Col if you tell anyone else, okay?"

Shirou had no idea what she was talking about. "Okay." He carefully replied.

"If there was someone that didn't have even one [Magic Circuit] but still wanted to use [Magecraft], what would you tell them?" She asked quietly.

[Make One], was the answer he did not give. It was a facile answer that was not facile at all. Because he could provide her with the complete method from the very beginning. This was not a hypothetical question. Compared to her complete inability to fight off that curse, that she couldn't do [Reinforcement], that she didn't even activate her Circuit once, the reason was obvious. She was a [Normal Person] who didn't have a Magic Circuit. If there was something strange about [SAO], then from his perspective, it was that [Normal People] were not actually [Normal] at all. In the real world, normally people couldn't do magic because they didn't have magic circuits. The rare exceptions to that rule were the people that possessed the Circuits. However, in the game, of all the Players he had met, all of whom were ignorant of the Great Craft, Argo was the unique exception as someone who did not have Circuits. That was a contradiction with every other accuracy in the game.

However, that was merely the background. In front of that, was that Kiritsugu had once assumed he was exactly that kind of person in exactly that kind of situation: that Emiya Shirou was a [Normal Person] who had no [Magic Circuit] but still wanted to perform [Magecraft].

Therefore, before anything else, before Reinforcement, before Projection, before even Structural Grasp or creating Od, there had been the most basic step, the foundation of everything he had practiced for those 10 long years.

Constructing the Circuit. Creating the conduit for Prana and inserting it into his backbone along his spine. It was dangerous, painful, and inefficient. The effect was limited.

But he could answer. That sad rhetorical question, he could definitely answer it.

However...

"You don't have anything to say, huh?" Argo said quietly. She didn't move, but it was like she shook herself as she turned away. "Well, I can respect silence more than I would respect a cheap platitude, so it's a good answer in that sense." She smiled at him. There wasn't any happiness in it at all, but at least it wasn't painful to look at. "So, thanks for listening." Her boots clicked quietly as she walked back out the door, which jangled as she stepped through.

However, he didn't provide the answer.

Because that wasn't the same as saying something vague about a sword that may or may not have been real, or just a reference to some other game. It wasn't advice from his experience in fighting that would be completely applicable whether or not it had anything to do with magecraft.

The answer was a genuine piece of thaumaturgic knowledge that was outside the system. If he answered, then he would be betraying the Secrecy of Magecraft by his own choice. He would be throwing away the ideology of a Magus and making himself into a heretic, an enemy.

Compared to all that, was the request for help from one lone girl...

Yes, the reason that Emiya Shirou didn't answer was simple.

Because he didn't know if the [Cardinal System] could duplicate that magecraft.

He didn't care about the Secrecy of Magecraft. He was a Magic User, not a Magus. He obeyed the rule only because it wasn't worth making enemies of the Enforcers for no reason, not because it was part of his Ideal. If helping someone would make him an enemy of the common sense of magecraft, then that was already his fate. If there were consequences then he would deal with them. It was that simple.

The only thing to do was, double-check that he was capable of helping, so that he wouldn't disappoint the person he was offering to help.

He stepped out of the shop and into the simulated mid-morning sunlight. Even if there were just two other people, the first priority was to go somewhere that he wouldn't be interrupted.

It was only about 11 in the morning, so there was plenty of time. He walked out of the side alley, back to the main street that cut from the south gate of the city across to the east gate. He was closer to the south gate, and the main street brushed against an open area like a market at the center of town.

He walked towards the market, and when the sign of an [Inn] caught his eye, he nodded to himself and went inside.

I I I

It was little more than a closet with a cot in it. There was a window that opened onto the courtyard of the central building, but this was about the level that was expected from a basic room in an Inn. He ignored the cot and the window. The most important thing was that as long as he had the door closed and set to [Locked] he wouldn't be interrupted. He had no idea what the penalty for failure would be, so he simply needed to perform the [Spell] perfectly without any flaws.

He sat down cross-legged on the simulated floor of sanded planks. He crossed his legs tightly and settled his hands in his lap, centering them one palm in the other.

Just like this, how many hundreds, how many thousands of times had he done this?

He closed his eyes, and controlled his breathing. He became aware of his heartbeat, and felt the heat of his body as it washed into his veins. Those sensations were all illusions because his holographic body had none of those things, but even so, he felt all of it.

He condensed an image. It was like a bar of iron. Even though it cooled from molten liquid as he solidified the image in his mind, it was still a white-hot bar of iron.

And he inserted that blazing rod along his spine. From the base of his skull, he dragged it down, he pushed it along his back, burning up as he synchronized. It had been months since the last attempt, but this was not something that Emiya Shirou could ever forget. Even if it was something he had left behind this was what he had unfailingly forged every night without any expectation of success.

He poured the hot image down his spine, and changed the reality into the image. His spine was fuel that produced a Magic Circuit when burned by that fire.

His breathing was still under his control. His heart rate was steady. Simulated heat rose from his body. The familiar sensation like he'd scalded the inside of his spine was there.

Even so, he smiled sincerely when he opened his eyes. Compared to last time, this time the pop up had appeared much more quickly.

[Congratulations!]

[Unique Spell Developed!]

[Name: Transmute Spine into Circuit (Accept/Change?)  
Description: Transform the nerves in your spine into a temporary Magical Circuit.  
Prerequisites: None]

With a happy sigh, he pushed off the ground, standing up. He twisted in place, checking that there weren't any mobility problems or side effects, and nodded to himself when he verified that there were none. Since there was no need to keep it, he let the fake Circuit immediately start evaporating rather than clamping it in place and retaining it. It would completely dissipate in ten minutes that way, rather than lasting for hours like he normally achieved.

He walked out the door, closing it behind him as he descended the staircase and exited the building.

Since it was almost noon, he just headed straight towards the center of town.

Argo was frowning, kicking her legs idly as she sat on a bench facing the central plaza. She was messing around with her menu, typing rapidly while switching menus. He waved as he approached, and she curtly nodded to return his greeing.

"Hello." He greeted, once he was close enough.

"Hey." Argo said, before glancing at the where the clock in the corner of her menu would be.

"Well at least you're on time. I wonder what's holding Kiribou up?" She mused, glancing at him and then turning to scan the crowd. "I haven't decided whether it's more likely to be something cool or something dumb. It could go either way with Kiribou."

"If there was someone that didn't have even one [Magic Circuit] but still wanted to use [Magecraft], then I would tell them to [Make One]." Shirou replied, not to what she had said, but to her earlier question. "It would be hard, painful, and dangerous, but it's definitely possible to make one."

Argo stared, judging him with hooded eyes. Her face was blank. She fiddled with her menu, and at the end decisively swiped her hand down to dismiss it before turning to face him. "You know, when I said that I preferred silence to a stupid platitude, that wasn't a sarcastic challenge to come up with one, I was being honest."

Shirou didn't respond with words. Instead, he navigated the menu, and selected the [Spell] and the settings, and made the offer.

[Inherit Teaching? Y/N]

It floated in the air between them, and some of the hardness in her eyes melted into amazement. Her expression relaxed slightly as she made her decision and chose her resolve. "If this is a bluff, I won't forgive you at all."

But that hand reached up and confidently accepted.

The holographic rectangle announcing the [Inheritance of Magecraft Lineage] appeared.

When the timer reached zero, a sensation that was similar to creating the Circuit occurred as an awareness of another nervous system bloomed out from the base of his skull. It was completely painless, but fascinating in its own way. He wondered if this was similar to what Rin experienced when she operated a familiar by remote; she had shown him the basics but that kind of magecraft was still far beyond him.

"It's exactly like you described in the guide." He said. "I can feel your body overlayed with my own."

"Yeah, even if it was just a dummy attempt that ended in failure, I tried this feature out as soon as it became available." Argo replied, shifting in place. "Still... how are you doing that thing with your center of gravity? You're perfectly stable, it's weird."

"Hmm?" Shirou cocked his head to the side, blinking. "I don't quite understand what you mean, I'm not doing anything special, just standing in place."

"No, don't worry about it." Argo said, dismissing his confusion, before she shook her head slightly. "So! What's the first step for this [Magecraft] you're going to show me?"

"The first step is to calm and control your breathing." Shirou said, as he lowered himself to sit on the ground. "It's not necessary as part of the image of the spell, but instead, it's necessary to control the magic. More than other spells, the danger of failure is high." Shirou warned. He wasn't trying to scare her, just to prepare her emotionally.

"Right." Argo replied seriously, as she smoothed her cloak out as she sat cross-legged on the ground facing him. "But before I try it, can you explain what we're going to do?"

Shirou nodded in agreement with that premise. "What we're going to do is..." He thought back to the explanation that he had received from Kiritsugu, all those years ago. "If a normal Magic Circuit is something like a vein that circulates prana through the body, then what we're going to do is solidify a blood-clot and use it to change a nerve from something that conducts thoughts into something that conducts prana."

"I see." Argo said, wrinkling her nose slightly. "I've managed some success with [Generate Od], but without anything to hold it, it always just leaks out. Is this somehow different?"

Shirou thought about that, frowning as he considered. It was a question he'd never considered before. "It's similar." After thinking about it, he reached his conclusion. "However, the difference is in the speed. Rather than trying to rapidly squeeze out as much magical power as possible, you carefully take each drop and use it to build up the image. But synchronizing it takes much longer than creating it."

"Alright." Argo said, nodding as she closed her eyes. "Please led the way... Shirou-sensei."

"Yes." Shirou said, smiling. He closed his eyes. Once again, he condensed that blazing bar. The molten metal was poured into his imagination and cast into the shape he desired. He went as slowly as possible, so that Argo could follow along.

He could feel her heartrate increase, but she kept her breathing under strict control, so the buildup of her image proceeded smoothly. Rather than the molten heat of his image, hers was much colder, like she was freezing saltwater, increasing the salt content in the brine, until finally it precipitated out and crystallized. That was the kind of image she had of her artificial Circuit.

"The next part is painful." Shirou warned.

"All right." Argo replied, with her teeth already slightly grit. As a result of the parameter for her internal body temperature going up, the [System] added a sheen of sweat to her forehead.

Carefully, slowly and delicately, Shirou dragged the hot bar down, lined it up with his spine, and gently eased it into his back.

"Gah!" Argo flinched in place, her own back arching up and out like an over-stretched spring, a shudder going up her like a harmonic vibration. Because of the sympathetic transmission of the [Inheritance System], she was experiencing the same thing he did. "That... that really is painful!"

Shirou paused in place, not moving the bar. "Be careful." He warned. "The image of your Circuit is really unstable."

"R-right." Argo growed through clench teeth, and the wobbling in the slab of salt stopped as she brought her shivering under control, and the cracks smoothed over and closed, so it didn't fracture.

"That's good." Shirou said. "Now, take it slow and easy, and insert it gently."

Argo didn't respond, instead opting to lower the image, placing it against the top of her ribcage where the backbone became the neck. She lowered her own image in.

If Shirou's Circuit was like pouring molten steel down his spine, then Argo's Circuit was like packing salt into an open wound. It completely lacked heat, but the pain was still like fire burning away at flesh, like acid eating away at muscle, as the slab of salt was forced into her spine.

"Gaaah!" Argo twitched in place. Her hands where clenching her knees, fingers digging into her own flesh as she gripped her joints as tightly as she could. Her teeth were locked in place and every muscle of her neck was rigidly stiff. "G-guh!" She panted heavily.

"Don't let your breathing get out of control." Shirou warned, slightly worried. "Don't hurry, just be careful."

"Right." Argo grit out, head twitching sideways slightly as she forced herself to take longer and deeper breaths. "Right, I have this."

She pulled it down, carefully, sliding the pillar of salt into her back, grafting it into her nerves as it grated up along her spine.

"Good, like that." Shirou praised. "A little at a time, gently."

Argo grit her teeth, and continued.

"No, don't rush." Shirou chided. "It's starting to crack-!"

The image burst. The pillar of salt split like a buckling column, like a brittle spire that was pushed too hard. The salt was poured into her wounds.

Argo screamed, rolling forward, thrashing about on the ground.

[Inheritance Failed!]

Shirou lept up toward her.

Kirito was closer. Shirou didn't know when he had gotten here, but the other boy was by Argo's side, pulling her up to a sitting position. "Hey, hey, it's alright, right?" Kirito began by trying to reassure her, but he grew worried once he had started inspecting her.

The HP bar, because of the spell failure... her HP was already in the red zone.

"Kiribou?" Argo murmured. "When did you arrive?"

"Like twenty minutes ago." Kirito replied, sitting back on his heels. "Well, I was going to apologize for being late, but then I saw that you were busy with the [Inheritance] mechanic, so I didn't want to interrupt in case that triggered a [Spell Failure] penalty." He shot Shirou a look then, that didn't quite blame the other boy, but instead, demanded an explanation in the near future. But he forced a smile on his face when he turned back to Argo. "So I went and bought some lunches, and then came back, and had to wait." He sighed, standing up. "You're lucky that the game doesn't have an inconvenient rule for food going cold, so they're still warm."

"Red Zone." Argo muttered, glancing at her HP bar, before sighing as she stood up, shakily brushing her knees off. Since clothes never became dusty, it was a completely useless gesture, just something to buy time with. "You really weren't kidding with that hard, painful, and dangerous line, where you, Shirou?"

"No." Shirou said quietly, shaking his head. "Even compared to other spells, this one is deadly."

"[To be a magus is to walk with death]." Kirito murmured something, like he was reciting a famous and ominous quote. No, inside the game [Sword Art Online], that wasn't "like" it, those words really were famous and ominous.

He sighed again, slumping in place. "Well, for now, let's have some sandwiches."

He materialized the food, casually tossing the wrapped items to his party members, who thanked him. The three sat on the bench facing the plaza. With a chorus of "itadakimasu", they dug in and enjoyed the meal.

Shirou was mostly finished with his sandwich, having only a few bites remaining, when the message popped up. He quickly finished his meal, opened it, and then Shirou sighed deeply and sincerely.

"What's up?" Kirito asked, around a mouthful of food.

"Ilya dropped by [Takachan's Emporium] to drag me off to lunch." Shirou replied. "Now she's demanding to know where I am."

Kirito swallowed his food, and chuckled mirthfully. "After you ignored her to focus on grinding your skills, she's not going to be happy at all that you went questing with us instead of her."

"Yeah." Shirou sighed again, leaning back. He wished Kirito hadn't sounded so delighted about the prospect of that happening. "I guess the best thing to do would be to run back at top speed to placate her by taking her somewhere for the rest of the afternoon, huh?"

"I don't know think most girls would forgive two-timing just because you took them on a date." Kirito said wisely.

"Oh-ho." Argo smoothly entered into the conversation. "Is that hard-won experience talking, Kiribou? Even if she's the other woman in the scenario, you can always rely on Argo-nee-chan for advice, you know."

"Guh." Kirito said, flinching. "No, I'm a pure and innocent young man, so I've never done anything like that."

Shirou sighed, standing up. His sandwich was finished, so the only thing to do was compose a message to send Ilya. He didn't feel like explaining himself by text, so it would have to be suitably terse, but of course it would have to placate her sufficiently that it didn't just make things worse.

Of course, he had responsibilities here, as well. "I'll be in contact if you want to practice more." Shirou said to Argo. "It wouldn't be wise to try again until you recover your HP, so we should wait until tomorrow at least."

"At least." Argo agreed. Nothing in her voice indicated hesitation or concern, but there was some depth there that Shirou didn't understand.

"Right." Shirou said, turning away. "Well, I guess it's time to go face Ilya."

"You make her sound like a [Floor Boss]." Kirito muttered. "Of course, I have no reason to deny that analogy."

In his heart, Shirou also didn't want to deny it, so rather than attempting to defend Ilya, he simply started running.

I I I

When Shirou took off running, Kirito leaned back in place, humming slightly. He was trying to come up with appropriate BGM for the [Sixth Ranger] as a character image song, but somehow he hadn't come across anything that really worked.

Well, there was a different conversation he wanted to have. He had to decide how to start it.

"The reason I was late," Kirito began, "was because this small town has a [Magecraft Instructor] as an NPC off near the west end of town."

Argo nodded, thinking about it. "That's... a little strange. This is the first [Instructor] that hasn't been in a main city. The rest are all in the main cities for each floor." She sighed. "I wonder if I should re-investigate the secondary cities on the lower floors to see if we triggered a global event." She shifted in place. "But more importantly, what's this one's shtick?"

"His name is Gebaru," Kirito revealed, "and he is an [Alchemist]."

"Well, I expected we'd be running into an [Alchemist] before too much longer." Argo nodded, leaning back and throwing her hands over the back of the bench. "Did he have anything interesting to say?"

Kirito shrugged. "Well... there was some technobabble, but basically he told me to go away and come back when I've completed certain unspecified quests."

"Annoying." Argo muttered. "I'll probably drop by, at least to cross-reference against some other rumors."

"Yeah." Kirito nodded. The conversation had reached a natural lull.

Kirito was trying to come up with a way to say 'speaking of magecraft instructors' that wasn't completely obvious, when Argo spoke.

"So right now, I have two questions about Shirou. I don't think you can answer either of them, Kiribou." Argo still had her arms casually thrown over the back of the bench, and her head titled back with her legs stuck out in front of her. Her body language and tone were completely casual, but the topic she had chosen to talk about was not casual at all.

Kirito leaned back himself, folding his hands on his chest. "Does it have to do with how powerful he is?" Kirito considered what the second was. "And how he knows so much about the [Thaumaturgy System]?"

Argo grunted. "That's only one question, Kiribou." She held up a hand, with one finger extended up towards the sky. "How does he know what he knows." She opened her fist and waved her hand. "Battle skill, the [Thaumaturgy System], the [Steel], all that; but he doesn't have any understanding of Switching and he's clearly a noob at MMOs." Her hand dropped back to drape over the back of the bench.

"It's just a hypothesis," Argo began, "but my hypothesis is this: that Shirou is an [Alpha Tester]."

"You think he's from the development team?" Kirito asked.

Argo shook her head. "No, not quite. Rather... the development cycle of [Sword Art Online] was a little strange. Because of the [Motion Library] that was used to assemble the [Sword Skills]."

"Oh." Kirito said, realization dawning. "I remember reading about that in [MMO Today]. They ended up extending the alpha testing by three months because they needed to redesign the game."

"Yeah." Argo nodded. "The reason was because the original attempt at [Sword Skills] was too subtle. They tried to use the [Motion Library] to create artificial instincts that would allow you to fight like you actually had the skills corresponding to your skill score, but it didn't work. So they had to create the [System Assist] and add the programming steps."

"So you're saying that Shirou wasn't one of the programmers exactly, but one of the martial artists that was hired as a sample for the [Motion Library], instead?" Kirito murmured. "Yeah, and if he was a playtester during the alpha testing, then it would make sense that he would also have been testing the balance of the rest of the game. If that included testing the [Thaumatugry System] that was scrapped for the initial release or was kicked back to an expansion in the future, then that would explain that, too."

"But it's just a hypothesis." Argo warned. "I haven't tested it, I don't even know what he was up to last spring."

"Hmm." Kirito said. "I'll let you know if I find anything out." He sighed. "So that's one question."

"The second question." Argo idly raised her hand. "Does he work for Kayaba?"

"I want to answer that question [No]." Kirito said, with a rueful smile. Yes, it was that he wanted to answer the question with no, not that he was actually answering the question with no.

Argo grunted in agreement. "Well, from our perspective as outside investigators, the question of where he got his knowledge and whether he supports Kayaba are unrelated. For example, if he really was an [Alpha Tester], than he could be supporting Kayaba from the inside, or be an employee that was betrayed on top of being trapped in the [Death Game]." She shook her head. "And that's all leaving aside Ilya. She definitely was in the [Beta Test], and so far I'm relieved that she's been treating the [Death Game] differently, but I just don't trust her."

"Hope for the best but prepare for the worst, huh." Kirito muttered. "I don't like thinking of my friends like this."

"Yeah." Argo agreed. "But I want you to keep your eyes open, okay?" She sighed. "Just... stay safe, okay, Kiribou?"

"Yeah." Kirito sighed. "It's painful, but I'll keep an eye on both of them, just in case."


	31. 7:3 Ilya, Silica, and Shirou

"As you can see, the experiment of removing an Element was successful in principle, but the side effects are nontrivial." Kayaba explained, gesturing towards the girl huddled in a miserable ball on the featureless horizontal plane beneath them. Naturally, they were completely invisible and undetectable to her due to the game settings. "The [Psychological Counseling Program] is devising a treatment regime to undo the damage, but for now, the specimen's depression approaches catatonia."

"Hmm." Ilya said, tapping her lips as she scrutinized the teenaged girl that was staring unresponsively off into the featureless darkness. "Didn't you say she was already psychologically unstable, though?" She tilted her head. "Someone with a weak ego is always more susceptible to spiritual trauma."

Kayaba nodded slowly. "Yes, but that's to our benefit. It amplifies the side effects, so they're easier to determine." He shrugged, flicking his hand to the side after he finished speaking.

Elements and Sorcery Traits. They were different kinds of aspects, but that was a difference between similar kinds. They weren't completely unrelated. The distinction between what was an "Element Affinity" and what was a "Sorcery Trait" was essentially the same kind of taxonomic difference as between two species of lizard. They were distinct, but fundamentally similar.

Therefore, if the objective of their cooperation was to remove the Sorcery Trait of being the Lesser Grail from Ilya, then there was value in developing methods to remove Elements from other people as well. Even if there were many differences, dissecting geckos as practice prepared one to perform surgery on an iguana.

Inspecting the result of that kind of experiment was why Kayaba had invited Ilya to this space.

"I'm unimpressed." Ilya said, tilting her head to the side with a light sigh. "The damage is too severe, it's just sloppy."

"Hmm." Kayaba agreed with a slight nod. "I have no experience with decreasing Aspects rather than increasing them, so I've had to solve unanticipated problems." He gestured mildly with his hand again. "For example, the spiritual hemorrhaging into the resultant void was unexpected, so I had to spontaneously develop countermeasures."

"Trying to make excuses isn't very cool." Ilya shot back.

"I have no defense." Kayaba surrendered easily. "In the meantime, are you familiar with the work of Sushruta?"

Ilya searched her memory, both natural and homoncular. "The Indian physician from three thousand years ago?" She asked.

"Yes." Kayaba nodded. "It was redacted from all modern copies, but he originally proposed that rather than five Elemental Affinities, it would be more accurate to count 31; two raised to five minus one, for all combinations of one Element, then two Elements, then three, on up to Average Ones."

"I'm familiar with it." Ilya allowed.

"There are merits to his approach." Kayaba explained. "There are distinct differences between people with only the Fire Element compared to only the Earth Element, and both of those populations can be distinguished from those having the Fire and Earth Elements."

"So you're saying you need to repeat the experiment on a different species of sample?" Ilya asked.

"Yes." Kayaba said, glancing at the one below them with a mild frown. "In particular, I would like to explore the Aspects of magic-users that diverge from the Common Elements. By comparison, the nature of the recorded Rare Elements tend to be closer to Sorcery Traits, so they would be especially valuable."

"Oh?" Ilya said, raising an eyebrow with a cold expression. "You're about to say something really dangerous, you know?"

Kayaba closed his eyes and shook his head. "Although Emiya Shirou fits that demographic, I will exempt him." Kayaba's gaze grew slightly distant, as he deeply pondered something, while Ilya watched suspiciously. But after only an instant, his eyes refocused on Ilya. "I wouldn't gain anything by jeopardizing our cooperation in that manner, so please rely on my words."

"So what do you want me to do about it?" Ilya asked. She would accept his words at face value for now.

"I'll forward you a list of Players who possess [Rare Elements]. Since they were identified by the [Cardinal System] during the [Element Identification] quest, there shouldn't be any problem with you pushing them to explore their unique natures." Kayaba explained.

"Hoh, you're going to make us do your gruntwork for you?" Ilya asked with a raised eyebrow.

Kayaba smiled with a mild and humorless expression. "Please remember this is for your benefit before you raise a complaint."

"Hmph." Ilya crossed her arms and sniffed out, but she didn't deny it because it was true. Instead, she graciously accepted it. "Well, since you put it like that, I'll help you out."

"Thank you." Kayaba said, manipulating his menu slightly.

The promised PM appeared before Ilya, and she opened it to glance over the contents before nodding. It included not just the name of the Player, but also identifying information, and options to unilaterally deploy some of the benefits of being [Friends]. However, glancing at her menu options brought another important detail to Ilya's attention.

"I'll put it on my to-do list." Ilya agreed. "But for now, I have a date, and I'm not the sort of girl that shows up fifteen minutes late while the boy waits under the clock, so I should be going."

I I I

"We have a shift this afternoon, so we have to get back to the third floor, but we'll party again some time, right Silica-chan?" He asked with an excited smile, as his friend nodded beside him.

Silica smiled. She didn't really want to emotionally, but she guessed it was the correct thing to do socially, so she smiled back. "Thank you, Tonnura-san. I'll message you then, okay?"

"Sure thing, Silica-chan!" He agreed with an easy smile.

"Of course, Silica-chan!" His companion Mosaku agreed with his own broad smile.

Silica waved with her other hand behind her back, but when they rounded the corner of the street, she deflated with a sigh.

Partying up with those two was productive, but they were a little annoying because of the way they fawned over her. It was a little suffocating, and it might even have been intimidating for a certain reason, except she was pretty sure those two had some kind of something going on.

But there was a minimum threshold for solo play, and she wasn't confident she passed it. It was true as a dagger-user her DPS wasn't so great, but she was moving towards the [Druid] archetype of other games with the combination of heals and buffs she had in her [Spellbook]. And it wasn't like she had any problems with the gameplay itself.

No, the problem was that the solitude was intimidating. Staying on alert for hours on end without anyone to watch her back or catch her mistakes was too scary. It wasn't that her statistics as a game character were too low, it was that her confidence as a player was too low.

"No, no." She said, slapping her cheeks lightly and shaking her head. It wouldn't do to get depressed, for now she should have lunch.

Since they had been running quests on the second floor, she decided to go to a certain restaurant that was famous for its hamburgers and cheesecake on this floor. They were both foods she liked and since she didn't have to worry about the calories at all it was like winning three times.

Determined to have a good time, she put on a warm smile and walked in, and sat down at one of the only empty tables, which had four places.

She placed her order. Since she had a little time to wait, she fiddled with her inventory, resting one elbow on the table and her chin in that palm while her other hand operated the menus. She was just sorting things back and forth, idly rearranging the vendor trash and checking her items as a way to spend her time while waiting.

"Excuse me."

She blinked at the warm voice of a girl around her own age. She blinked, eyes focusing as she looked past the holographic menu at the person that was smiling at her. When they made eye contact, the other girl curtsied in a formal manner, dipping down with her head bowed and eyes closed. Because she was wearing heavy-metal equipment with an armored skirt to protect her thighs the girl could even pinch the corners of her dress and hold them out.

Silica sat up straight, blinking. "Um, yes?" She said, bowing slightly from the same position. "How can I help you?"

"Oniichan and I", the girl glanced at the older teenager standing behind her, a tall young man with red hair and a relaxed expression, "were hoping that you wouldn't mind sharing a table with us during the lunch rush, as the restaurant is ever so busy."

"Oh!" Silica said, blinking. There were still several tables with free spots, but at the same time, how many times had she scanned crowds of players hoping to find other girls her own age to make friends with? "Certainly, please feel free to sit down." She said, bowing again with her hands on her thighs.

"Thank you." The girl agreed, as she easily slid into the seat on Silica's right, while her older companion she introduced as her brother sat down in the place across from her. "My name is [Von Ilya], but please feel free to call me Ilya." She gestured with her right hand. "And my oniichan's name is [SHIROU]."

"The pleasure is mine." Silica demurred. "My name is [Silica]." She returned the bow of the other two, and then glanced up.

Since sitting down in the chairs tripped a flag to start the meal, there was already an NPC waitress walking over. They both ordered their meals, and Silica asked that her own be delayed until theirs was ready. It wasn't like it would get colder if it was brought out first but eating before them would be rude, and equally, it wasn't like there was a chef that would be inconvenienced by her request.

After the logistics of arranging the meal were taken care of, Silica turned to face the older boy. "So, um, your name is Shirou, right?" She asked.

"It is." He agreed with a smile.

"Like the [Sixth Ranger]?" Silica asked, blushing slightly at her own eagerness. She didn't want to be misunderstood, but the [Sixth Ranger] was someone she really admired. Compared to her who was afraid to go out alone, he was a genuine [Hero].

"Ha ha ha." Ilya laughed with a light and amused voice, putting the back of her hand over her face. Silica blinked because it was different than her original polite and perfect behavior, but the pale girl next to her put on a superior smile and then explained. "It's not just like the [Sixth Ranger], because this guy really is the [Sixth Ranger]!"

Silica didn't understand why Ilya was bragging like that was her accomplishment, but that wasn't important. Silica leaned forward, propped up on her hands as she stared at her idol with a wide smile. "Really!?" She demanded in an excited voice. "I mean, I just want to say that I'm your biggest fan!" Ilya had muttered something incredulous but Silica ignored her.

Shirou flinched back, smiling crookedly as his eyes slid to the side. "Is, is that so?" He said, rubbing his shoulder. "Um, thank you."

Silica nodded enthusiastically. "No, it was because I believed that you could save me that I had the bravery to go out in the first place. If it wasn't for you supporting everyone, I don't think there would be nearly as many players that joined the middle lines."

"Is that so." He said, with a complicated expression. It was a sincere smile, but there was also something behind it in his expression, with his eyes hooded, as his words trailed off and a lull in the conversation built up.

Silica realized she had nearly climbed on top of the table in her eagerness, so she flinched, blushing as she slid back into her seat. "Well, you're someone I admire, so I just wanted to tell you that." She mumbled.

"Hmm." Ilya said, with a serious frown. Silica flinched again, this time leaning to her left as the other girl pushed forwards into her personal space. "If you're another one that's aiming at Oniichan, then don't think I'll give you any mercy as a rival."

"Wait?" Silica squeaked, looking from the other girl to the young man and then back. "It's true that he's someone I admire and I guess he's good-looking but he's not really cute enough for bishounen, so I don't think I'd be interested in him that way." Silica hurried to explain, laughing off the accusation. She froze, her head whipping back to Shirou as she realized what she had said. "Ah, that's not to say that you're not cool, though!"

"Hey!" Ilya said, slapping the surface of the table. "Shirou is plenty handsome! Why are you making it sound like he's the one that's not good enough for you!?"

"Ilya." Shirou said with an aggravated sigh. "The food is going to be here soon, so before that, if you can't behave like an adult I'll be troubled." He shook his head with an expression that said 'this won't do' and added something a little strange. "If you continue to insist on acting like a wild tiger then I'll have to treat you like one."

"Guh." Ilya backed down both conversationally and literally, retreating to sit properly in her seat instead of leaning on the table. She coughed into her fist primly and recomposed herself with her eyes closed before she spoke.

"Certainly you don't think I would trouble you, Shirou?" She said, with a mournful tone like even being suspected made her sad.

"I wonder." Shirou said with a heavy and doubtful voice.

Silica chuckled slightly.

"Oh?" Ilya had a challenging eyebrow raised. "Is there something that amuses you? Silica-chan."

"Ah." Silica smiled awkwardly. "It's just that, um, it seems like you could really be brother and sister in real life."

Even though she had said something that rudely presumed about the world outside the game, Ilya didn't look bothered at all. "That's because we are." She said, with a superior smile.

"That's good." Silica said, with a soft smile. She didn't have any siblings, but if it was cousins, over a dozen were boys.

"So what kind of build do you play, Silica-chan?" Ilya asked, brushing aside the slightly heavy topic. But, what she chose to discuss instead was a different kind of personal. In a regular game it would have been a fine topic for light conversation, but in [SAO], the choice of build was a matter of life or death, so it was at least as personal as asking someone about their test scores at the end of the year. It was something you'd talk about with friends, but not with strangers.

"A speed-type dagger-user." Silica said, rubbing her sleeve. "My two highest-stat spells are [Reinforcement] and [Cure]."

"Hmm." Ilya nodded. "I'm a strength-type that uses two-handed swords. My [Reinforcement] is good," she said with a slight smile, "but actually, Shirou's is better. He plays as a speed-type swordsman." She concluded with a nod.

Shirou smiled. "I'm not familiar with the [Cure] spell. Which NPC provides it?"

"Ah," Silica said with a slightly proud smile, "It's actually a popular [Extra Spell] that was developed by one of the Players on the Front Lines, and since it became the basic healing magecraft, it's been re-named [Cure]." Silica nodded. "Um, it was invented by one of Diabel-sama's [Paladins]. I don't know how to pronounce his name. Leihumaku or something like that? The [Paladins] sell the [Spell Book] for 1 Col, so everyone usually tries it out at least once."

"Everyone calls that guy [Bones]." Ilya replied with an amused smile.

"Thank you, I'll remember that." Silica replied with her own smile.

It was about then that the food was placed in front of them by the waitress NPC. Shirou thanked her, so the NPC automatically smiled back before turning and walking back to wherever she went when she wasn't deployed.

After they said "Itadakimasu", there was another short lull as they started eating. Both Ilya and Silica had gotten the hamburger steak, although Shirou had gotten something that looked like Mapo Tofu.

Halfway through her own meal, Ilya gave Shirou and then his meal an inquisitive glance, pausing with her fork in her mouth, before she lowered it to speak. "How's the Tofu?"

Shirou shrugged with a slightly annoyed look. "For once the texture isn't a problem, but it's a little bitter and a little sour."

Ilya wrinkled her nose in response.

"Um," Silica wasn't quite sure what she wanted to ask.

"Don't worry about it." Ilya said with a dismissive gesture. "Shirou's just an otaku that's dissatisfied with the quality of the [Food Engine]."

"I see." Silica said, even though she didn't, not really. She could understand how someone could be an otaku for other parts of the game like the combat or the crafting, but for the eating? Maybe the [Sixth Ranger] was one of those super-fat people in real life?

Silica violently shook her head.

"Hmm?" Ilya said with a quizzical tilt of her own head. "Is something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing." Silica said, hastily taking another bite of her own food.

"If you say so." Ilya said with a dismissive shrug, before she elegantly laid her fork face-down on her plate in front of her.

Silica finished after her. She put her fork on her own plate like usual, but somehow it felt like it would be rude to push her own plate away when the other girl hadn't, so Silica didn't, either.

"Hmm." Ilya said, tapping her lips. "So if you use a Dagger as a speed-type and your best spells are buffs and heals, then what do you do for DPS?"

Silica sighed. "Yes, that is where I'm weakest. If I get close I can usually spam dagger attacks, but that doesn't always work and against heavy-type monsters the base damage isn't high enough."

Shirou finished his portion, and calmly put his utensils on his plate as well.

Since the last person had finished, the waitress NPC spawned again and collected their dishes. Shirou thanked her again and the NPC repeated exactly the same smile animation as before, and then went back to the kitchen.

"Usually a player in your position would start using attack spells." Ilya said, with a voice like she was casually hypothesizing. "Are you just reserving your prana for use with your buffs?"

Silica shook her head. "No, I was lucky when my Circuit was rolled up."

Ilya nodded. "So it's something else, then?" She smiled deviously. "Maybe you're one of those people that fails at life and only have the Ether element?"

"Ilya." Shirou said, breaking into the conversation. "Is that how you talk about your friends?"

"Hmph." Ilya said with a sniff. "I don't recall accepting that guy as my friend."

Shirou sighed. "Yes, and if you talk about him that way, then it will be him that rejects you as a friend, which would make your opinion irrelevant."

"Actually," Silica said, breaking in to change the subject, before realizing she didn't really know what she wanted to say, "Actually, um, I can't say what my element is."

"Oh?" Ilya asked with a delighted grin. "Did you make a pinky-swear to keep it secret?"

"Ilya." Shirou said with a sigh.

"When I did the [Element Identification]," and she hadn't been too proud to decline the discount that Tonnura had offered her, "I was one of the people that was identified as a [Rare Element]."

"Ah, so you're one of those special people." Ilya said.

"Ilya." Shirou repeated himself, sounding a little more testy.

"Shirou is one of those people with a [Rare Element] as well, you know." Ilya added, completely ignoring her brother.

"Really!?" Silica asked, smiling across the table at him.

"Yes." He nodded. "So it's nothing to be ashamed of."

Silica hadn't been, actually, so she just smiled at him uncertainly. Rather than ashamed, she had been secretly gleeful, because it was normal in games for protagonists and strong PCs to have unique abilities. It was inconvenient that she couldn't use any of the regular magecraft, but she was confident that if she just played conservatively, she would be able to unlock some special commands.

"Ah, here's dessert." Ilya announced, sounding excited.

The waitress re-appeared, putting the cheesecakes down in front of them. For the third time, Shirou repeated his thanks and the NPC repeated her smile.

Silica dug in, relishing the cheesecake.

Ilya was just as enthusiastic next to her, although both girls were careful to maintain a minimum level of decorum. Since Shirou looked almost grave while he ate, Silica didn't want to look foolish by comparison. She wondered if always having to compare herself with him was the secret behind Ilya's good table manners.

Once again, Ilya was the first to finish, primly patting her lips with a napkin. While she waited for her two companions to finish, she sipped at her tea, humming lightly.

Silica finished, putting her fork down with a satisfied sigh. "Ah, that was good." She was smiling with contentment as she leaned back in her chair.

"Silica-chan." Ilya said, putting her teacup down. "After this, what are your plans for this afternoon?"

Silica blinked, cocking her head to the side as she thought about it. "Well, I was planning on joining one of the pickup groups for farming monsters out to the East." Broadly speaking, there were two shifts of combat in each day, in morning and afternoon. People formed casual parties, and there was a lot of churn during lunch, as people with different priorities switched groups. In the beginning a lot of the switching had been slightly angry because of differences in personalities, but now most people had loose networks that were slowly tightening into guilds. It was with those kinds of people that Silica did most of her leveling.

"I see." Ilya said, nodding with her eyes closed. "Rather than that, why don't you come with Shirou and I? I'll escort both of you while you do the [Rare Element Identification] quests."

Shirou shifted in place. Silica stopped what she was about to say when she saw he was getting ready to speak, but when he waved her ahead, she turned and addressed Ilya. "I appreciate the offer Ilya-chan, but I don't think those quests are listed in the [Argo Guide]."

Ilya laughed softly, in a superior manner. "Well, that is because the info is still so fresh it hasn't gone into the Guide yet."

Silica nodded slowly at that. It made sense that someone from the Front Lines would know. And if Shirou was one of those people that had a [Rare Element], then it also made sense for Ilya to be on top of those rumors.

But more than anything else...

Silica wanted to be one of the Front Liners. She was doing her best every day to climb up from the Mid Lines, but since she was afraid to solo, she couldn't level aggressively enough to close the gap between her and the people who were always pushing forward the Front. This was a chance to make connections with people that could help her support everyone and achieve her dream.

And it wasn't just anyone. The person she looked up to was the same kind of [Rare Element] as her. If she could get him to accept her as a kohai, then she would definitely be rewarded if she worked hard.

This was definitely a good opportunity.

"I'd be delighted to, Ilya-chan." Silica said with a beaming smile.

Ilya smiled back with equal warmth. "That's good!" She said, hopping off the table. "Since there's no point in wasting time, let's get going!"

She grabbed Shirou and Silica by the hands, hopping up and dragging them along.

Shirou lurched awkwardly around the edge of the table and the chair, hopping adroitly to avoid crashing into things even as Ilya pulled him along.

Silica giggled, and when she made eye contact with Ilya and saw the other girl's knowing smile, it bloomed into full laughter.

Silica let herself be pulled out of the restaurant and into the warm noon sun, towards her dreams.


	32. 7:4 Vs 3F Boss

"Over a hundred people have gathered this time." Kirito said, musing as he stared at the gathering.

"Yes." Asuna said, nodding curtly.

They were in the lowest layer of the Third Floor Dungeon, and in the westernmost room. It reached out all the way to the edge of the floor, so that the west end opened up as a gap in the wall that filled the room with afternoon light slanting in across the sandy cave floor.

Asuna was sitting on a large rock that jutted up from the bottom edge of that window with the sun at her back, while Kirito was casually leaning with his hip against the rock and his arms folded.

"I wonder what color the [Third Raid] is going to be." Kirito wondered out loud.

"Hm?" Asuna said, glancing over at him. "After [Red] and [White] the obvious next one would be [Blue], right?"

"Hmm." Kirito mused. She couldn't see his face from this angle, but just from the tilt of his head she could tell he had that expression with his eyes closed that he used when deeply pondering something. "I'm not so sure the [French Flag] is what we're going for as the [Raid Logo], though." He shook his head, before speaking again, more quietly. "Besides, blue is already the personal color of [Diabel-sama], so I don't think it's likely."

"I suppose." Asuna neutrally replied with a soft voice.

She shook her head slightly and spoke again to break the pause that had fallen over the conversation. "In that case the next candidate would be [Green], right?"

Kirito made an unenthusiastic noise and shook his head.

Asuna frowned, feeling a little annoyed. "Well in that case, rather than just lazily discarding my suggestions, why don't you offer your own opinion. Kirito-kun."

With a defensive slump of his shoulders, he spoke. "Well, I guess the next suggestion would be [Yellow]."

"And you think that's preferable to [Green], huh. In the end you would have everyone be the [Orange Group] against the boss?"

Kirito grunted. "Yes, yes, I'm very sorry, please forgive me."

Asuna sighed. "Perhaps I was also too sharp." She shook her head. "Why are you concerned about the colors, though?"

"You mean Ilya didn't say anything to you?" Kirito said something ominous, and then turned, examining her. She frowned at him, but he didn't notice, before speaking again. "I guess since you changed from your original brown cloak to this new red one, she thought you matched enough."

Asuna's eyebrow went up, and she laughed lightly. "She tried to make you wear a red coat, is that it?"

Kirito nodded with a sorrowful expression. "I said I was proud to be called the [Black Swordsman] and I didn't want to compromise that, but she didn't accept any arguments and I had to use the [Flee] command because the level of the enemy was too high."

Asuna sighed in turn. "That girl… sometimes I wish Shirou would put more effort into reining her in."

"Even if he's crazy-OP there are some battles that even the [Sixth Ranger] has to conserve his strength in." Kirito said with a slightly malicious smile. He glanced up, and off into the distance. "Speaking of which, I guess the [Stupid Helmet] got an upgrade."

Asuna followed his gaze.

Ilya was walking towards them. She was still wearing her typical purple armor equipment with a long two-handed sword, but thrown over her shoulders was a heavy cape of bright red material. The combination of colors was almost painful to look at, even inside the game.

However, the appearance of the man casually flanking her was more impressive.

Compared to the white jumpsuit of the [Sixth Ranger], he was wearing the tabard of a heavy-armor player that hung to mid thigh in a crimson color, with a medium-weight breastplate and knee-high armored boots, while his arms below the elbow were covered by heavy gauntlets. A cape hung down from his back to mid thigh, sweeping around him.

And on his head was the spiritual successor of the [Stupid Helmet]. Just like before it had the horns of a jackalope mob jutting out from the sides, but the quality was completely superior. In the first place the alignment of the horns was symmetrical and natural-looking, sticking straight out to the sides on a slight upward angle. The skull cap was a smooth dome that sloped down along the back of the head. Heavy plates over each ear reached up to support the horns and swept down and forward to converge on a face mask that left the eyes completely open. A grill of smooth holes covered the mouth.

If Ilya had the expression and bearing of a Fairy Princess, then beside her was the Horned King, a red knight with polished armor like it was silver.

"I guess Ilya talked you into magnificently representing the [Red Raid], then." Kirito called out.

[SHIROU the Horned King] raised a hand to wave in greeting as he approached. "Yes. Since Liz listened to my input regarding the visibility, I have no complaints about the helmet."

Ilya smiled. "It's not too late if you want to abandon your antisocial behavior and wear an appropriate coat as well, Kirito-kun."

Asuna stood, trading nods of greeting with Shirou, before she lightly jumped down from the surface of the rock to walk forward. "First of all I want to confirm that the four of us will be in a party during the upcoming battle, is that correct?"

"Yes." Ilya said, nodding her head. "I confirmed it with the other [Guild Leaders], so I expect you three to represent the [Red Raid] in an appropriately magnificent manner." She nodded seriously. "I've already checked with the other parties in the raid, but you all have your stats and equip buffed according to the briefing memo, right?"

Asuna agreed while Kirito nodded lazily and Shirou quietly said yes.

Asuna glanced at her HUD, and saw that it was nearly the designated time for the meeting to begin. The clock indicated it was only one minute until the official start of the meeting.

Around her, the talking and chatter grew dull and sparse, as everyone reacted the same way. An attitude of expectation built up even as it became quieter.

"Everyone! Thank you for coming!" Into the hushed silence, a warm voice spoke. Climbing up onto a platform near the door, the [Rune Knight] stood to address the crowd. "First, I would like to congratulate everyone gathered, because we have broken through to over 100 players gathered here!" He threw his hands up, and people started clapping and cheering in delight.

When it died down slightly, he turned his hands out to face the crowd and lowered them naturally. "So, as a result of that, we will be splitting into three [Raids] of around 40 players each. As before I will be leading the [White Raid] and Ilya will be leading the [Red Raid], but I would like everyone to congratulate Lind of the [Divine Dragon Alliance] as the leader of the [Black Raid]!" He pointed into the crowd, and a tall woman with heavy armor and a two-handed axe-type polearm raised her hand to acknowledge the clapping with a soft smile.

"Now, for the sake of everyone gathered here, I will explain the strategy this time." Diabel said once that clapping ended as well. "You should already know from the [Scout Report] that this time the enemy is a burrowing-type giant worm called [The Olgoi Khorkhoi]. Its primary method of attack is an aura counter and a bite attack that both have a dual acid and poison effect. So please, everyone buff your equipment against durability loss and your bodies against poison status effects. If you're not confident in your buffs, then please see me. It's something I'm only a little proud of but these are two areas where [Runecraft] excels."

Diabel swept his gaze across the gathered players with a warm smile. "Now, compared to the last two battles, the important differences are that this boss doesn't have adds, and that it has the burrowing effect. The rule governing when is not clear, but it will repeatedly move underground and attack a player from beneath. It's possible to track its motion with Earth Element effects or other magecraft, so if you are capable of doing so, please keep your companions informed."

Diabel nodded, and swallowed to clear his throat, before looking up again. "Furthermore, the special attack mode of [Illfang] and the vampire-like feeding of [Ore Rocks], a special attack like that wasn't witnessed by the Scouts but we cannot discount it. Because the [Olgoi Khorkhoi] is a creature of mythology, we cannot rule out a lightning effect like in the legends, a swallowing type special attack, or possibly a transformation of some kind in its last HP bar."

Again, his magnetic gaze crossed the crowd. It felt like he was directly making eye contact with her, and Asuna wondered if that was how everyone else felt.

He spoke again. "Therefore, the strategy decided on is reliable and simple: [Zone Defense]." He nodded, and then raised his eyes to smile at everyone. "Your party leaders have been assigned a position on a chess board we've imposed on the Boss Arena. Each grid position will host a party, so please check the map."

He clicked something in his inventory, and everyone received a simple book-type item. Asuna opened it along with everyone else. It was just a simple map of the Boss Room with a grid laid over it like described, that counted from the letter A at the top left corner across to the letter F, as well as counting down from 1 to number 6 at the bottom corner. Because the room was roughly circular, the corners of the grid were cut off, so A1 itself was outside the room.

There was also a list of all the parties that had gathered, and their assigned position in the grid.

"Please make your way to the assigned grid position. If the Boss enters your grid or an adjacent grid, please attack it. This means we will surround the Boss with up to nine parties, one from the grid position it attacks and the eight that are around it. Of course that means if it attacks a wall group it will be confronted by fewer players, so those groups, please keep that in mind and play carefully."

"You will notice that some Parties have not been assigned to any grid position. These are Parties that have Players focused on Heals and Buffs rather than DPS. I've spoken to them in advance, so they should also have spare weapons and equipment. If you need them, please don't hesitate to PM me and I will dispatch them to support you." He smiled. "I myself am in one such group."

"Are there any questions?" Diabel asked.

"Yes." Lind raised her hand.

"What is it, Commander Lind?" Diabel politely asked.

"How were the positions for each Party decided?" She loudly asked. Even though she spoke loudly, her voice was still quite cool.

Diabel smiled. "A fair question. Unfortunately, the qualification was simply strength. Parties with high DPS are on intervals, focused towards the center of the room."

"Is something wrong, Kirito?" Asuna asked. He was gritting his teeth and had his head tilted to the side, and he had an uneasy scowl. He looked like he wanted to bite his thumbnail.

He glanced at her, and after a moment, sighed. "Yes." He said. "It's just… it's not uncommon for Healers to draw Aggro, so I'm worried that these mobile heal teams might actually kite the Boss towards low-HP players."

It took Asuna a moment to understand, but then she nodded solemnly. "Yes, that is pretty serious." She frowned, and raised her hand.

Diabel finished explaining that the purpose of spreading people out was to reduce the damage from aura effects or the possibility of chain lightning, before his gaze swept over to Asuna. With a kind smile, he pointed. "Yes, Asuna of the [BSM] has a question."

Asuna wasn't aware that Diabel had even known her name, let alone her guild. "Right." She said, blinking. "Um, what if the healers draw Aggro and pull the boss towards hurt players?"

"A good question!" Diabel agreed easily. "However, unlike other games, it looks like [Healing] doesn't generate threat, because [SAO] originally only had item-based healing and natural HOT."

"Healing Over Time." Kirito whispered, correctly interpreting her look.

"Thank you." Asuna quietly replied.

"Is there anything else?" Diabel called to the group at large, scanning across the crowd. "Then, we'll take five minutes for last call on buffs and then we will deploy."

He stepped down from his podium, and chattering started up.

Asuna opened up the map that had been sent. "D-4," she murmured, looking up their coordinate, before glancing at her party. "It looks like we've been put right near the center of the room."

"Hmm." Ilya agreed. "At least that Diabel is recognizing our power correctly."

"Is this really alright?" Shirou asked with an uncertain voice.

"What do you mean, Shirou?" Asuna asked. There was tension around his exposed eyes, although it was impossible to tell whether he was clenching his jaw because of the helmet.

"This tactic of [Zone Defense]," Shirou began, trying to explain, "it's not… isn't it too lackadaisical? Once you decide to fight, holding back will get you killed."

"Hmm, that might be true." Kirito broke in. "Since this Boss is a damage-over-time type, it might seem wiser to charge forward and try to overwhelm it." He shook his head. "But since there's no ranged DPS, only melee, there's a severe upper limit on what a Raid can dish out no matter how big it gets. And even if there wasn't, if we underestimate the Boss, we might overextend ourselves and get exhausted before we're finished." Kirito sighed. "So playing conservatively like this and letting people rest during the battle itself isn't a bad thing." He shook his head.

"This mental exhaustion from fighting… it's not something that you'd ever experience in a regular game." Kirito's eyes darkened, as he stared at the ground. "Even in the beta it was necessary to pace yourself because doing things from inside the avatar is more intimidating than through a monitor, but the sensation of death pressing down is just too heavy." Then, Kirito sighed as he seemed to reach some conclusion and looked up again. "Well, the point is that I can approve of Diabel's thinking."

"Kirito." Asuna whispered. She felt out of her depth, like the water was too deep for her to stand in, she had had to awkwardly tip her head back to keep her face over the surface. But it wasn't like she had a solution to that crushing fear, either.

"Hmm." Shirou had only a noncommittal answer. "Well, if that's what you think, then I won't deny it's valid." But he shook his head, and seemed to swallow whatever else he was going to say.

"Shirou." Ilya spoke up. "It's just a game, so don't overthink it like that."

"Hmm." Shirou murmured, levering himself up from leaning against the wall. "Well, it's true that the battles progress according to game logic." He turned his gaze towards the podium, where Diabel had climbed up again. Asuna's gaze also followed him. Compared to before, he had his battle equipment materialized, an [Anneal Blade] at his hip and a large shield marked with Runes strapped to his arm.

"All right!" Diabel shouted, whipping his sword out and holding it aloft. "Everyone! For all the comrades gathered here, and for everyone in the towns that are relying on us! Let's charge forward!"

With a throaty roar, they followed his charge.

I I I

Compared to the afternoon sunlight that filled the adjacent room, the Boss Room was different.

What they charged into was the total darkness of underground.

However, as they swept in, torches out along the rim of the somewhat circular room burst into flame from either side of the door, sweeping around the curve until they met at the far end. The room was shaped like the magma chamber of a long-dead volcano, a great dome of black rock slag that rose up into the darkness. The floor was sand so fine it was almost silt, but it was hard-edged and sharp like shards of basalt.

And in the center of the room was the Boss.

[The Olgoi Khorkhoi].

A creature of mythology from the vast deserts of the Tibetan plateau. It was a great worm without any limbs, without arms, legs, or even a head, simply a soft mouth that gaped open like a jagged wound on the front end.

It was pulsing and wet, covered in a viscous slime that shined. It was as bright red as fresh blood, although it wasn't clear whether that was a color from its skin or simply that the slime that coated it would only reflect red light. There were no articulations or segments in its body, it was simply a smooth tube of muscle like someone had ripped the intestine out of some titan and thrown it on the floor in a pile.

But when the lights came on and the party charged in, it stirred. It did not slither like a snake. It lacked the spine to flex against. Instead it contracted and flexed like a vast earthworm. It was too clumsy to really be called smooth.

But when enemies appeared, it stirred.

I I I

"For the sake of everyone supporting us Front-Liners." That was the kind of smooth line that Diabel liked to use. But it wasn't really wrong.

As she charged forward flanked by her party members, what was gripped in her hand was a [Rapier]. Compared to the [Iron Rapier] that she had equipped for so long, this was something new, different, far superior. What was gripped in her hand could even be called material proof of the support she received as a [Front Liner].

The [Fallen Comet]. A player-crafted Rapier-type weapon equipment. It had been prepared specifically to match the Front-Liner Asuna by the Crafter, Lizbeth. It was slender and thin, but the quality of the metal was excellent so the durability was better even so.

Because it was superior, this sword could handle it. The revised magecraft wasn't too much.

"On Point!" Asuna shouted, reserving the first blow in her party as she sprinted towards the enemy.

First Step. Alteration to add the [Flaming Sword] parameter. Bright flame erupted along the blade, burning with a steady light.

Second Step. Gather a secondary pool of prana held inertly. Colored with the Wind Element, the charge of prana was built up. The [Flaming Sword] was destabilized and grew erratic but that was fine.

Third Step. Line up the [Skill]. Without even faltering one step, she lined up her blade and armed the skill.

Fourth Step. Use the [Skill]. With a fierce war cry, she leapt up and forward, thrusting out with the sword tucked at her hip and towards the Boss. There was resistance as the tip pierced the muscle-like flesh, but impaling this invertebrate was a smooth resistance like stabbing into petroleum jelly.

Fifth Step. Detonate the [Spell]. Accelerated by a burst of wind from a howling gale, the corona of fire exploded out from the blade of the sword buried inside the boss. Asuna was launched away like a rocket, clenching the hilt of the sword in both hands to keep it planted on her hip.

She landed lightly, skipping twice to disperse the momentum from exploding inside the boss.

"On it!" Shirou shouted. Kirito was staring at her with an amazed expression and even Ilya had an eyebrow cocked in surprise, so Shirou was the only one that moved forward.

He stepped forward, cutting twice into the hide of the Boss, using the one-handed curved sword to cut a cross-shape on top of the area where Asuna had stabbed. If it wasn't a game where damage was represented only by those bright red marks, then he would have widened the wound with those two radiating slashes just like that. "Switch!" He shouted, calmly stepping back.

Kirito snapped his eyes back to the boss. "Got it!" He called. He stepped forward. He had a new sword, which even longer and heavier than the [Anneal Blade] that he had exclusively equipped the whole time Asuna had known him. He swung it smoothly in a triple hit combo, diagonally down, horizontally across, a spinning step, and vertically up as he stepped away. "Switch!" He called, as he added a retreat onto the last step of his combo.

"My turn!" Ilya sang, jumping forward to whip her blade around in a flat horizontal slice, around and up across the original cut, twirling around a half-step to the side, and then a second vertical slash down before a horizontal cut the opposite way. "Switch!" She shouted, as she skipped back.

"It's going underground!" Kirito replied, holding out his hand.

Indeed, with a great screech, the Boss whipped its front end up sinuously as it thrashed around, before puckering its mouth into a point and plunging forward into the ground.

Asuna was breathing deeply, but wrinkled her nose at the heavy smell, an acrid stench like acid but also somehow nauseating, as she watched the hole in the earth slide shut behind the Boss.

"What's that smell?" She asked.

Ilya grunted, with a frown on her own face. "Probably that aura effect. Did anyone take damage?"

Shirou shrugged like it wasn't important.

Kirito shook his head sideways with a disagreeable expression before he spoke. "Some." He said. "But only a sliver, and the smell isn't that bad for me. How much did you take, Asuna?"

Asuna shook her head, and sighed. "Not much, but it's more than I'd call a sliver."

Kirito nodded. "In that case, the smell is probably stronger the more you're affected by that aura." He sniffed experimentally. "I can smell something, but compared to how much your face is scrunched up, it's not as much as you can smell." He sighed. "If we weren't buffed at all, then we'd probably be vomiting, so I guess the damage might not be the worst effect after all."

"Calm down, Shirou." Ilya said, with a commanding voice.

Asuna glanced up. Shirou was staring, rapt, around the field, his gaze flicking back and forth as he relentlessly scanned the area for where the Boss would emerge.

"Your job is to hold this ground, so don't go charging off wherever the Boss appears." Ilya added, sighing. "You need to keep your head, you know?"

Shirou grunted.

The Boss erupted from the ground with an eerie scream near the wall farthest from the Door, and Asuna flinched slightly, dropping back into a fighting stance. However, it was soon clear that the parties there had it under control, as the boss was thrown back by a pillar of earth that erupted underneath it like a piston, and swords glowed like tracer rounds as it was attacked.

"How about weapon durability?" Kirito asked. "Is everyone's equipment good?"

Asuna checked her inventory, and grimaced. "Not bad, but not good, either. The [Linear Burst] is always hard on weapons, so more than ten more would be dangerous."

"We shouldn't need that many." Kirito said with a relieved expression. "For now, let's just rest and prepare for the next skirmish."

I I I

Kibaou was muttering under his breath, as he traced Runes onto the forehead of a player that was hunched over, hands on his knees and breathing raggedly, his eyes darting up to his HUD where his HP bar was half-empty and yellow.

Diabel swept his glance over them, stepping back from his own patient, instinctively returning the heartfelt thanks with a warm smile. Kibaou finished replacing the [Protection from Poison] buff that had gotten blown away by the boss. His [Runecraft] wasn't as good as Diabel's, but it was improving as he pushed himself to keep up with his leader. Privately, Diabel considered that the ideal scenario.

Bones was frowning deeply with his eyes closed, hands flat against the chest of a player with only a sliver of health left. Pulses of prana emitted from those hands, and each time, a glowing red line from an injury disappeared from across the injured player's body, and their HP increased in equal proportion.

"Are you pacing yourself ok?" Cuvie asked with a slightly demanding tone. It was a little indelicate, but it was exactly the question Diabel wanted to ask, so he stepped back to allow the conversation to emerge between the two friends naturally.

"Yeah, it's no problem." Bones said with a sigh. "For lacerations like this, it's as simple as pushing the sides of the wound together and gluing them shut with a thin layer of replacement flesh." He grunted, popping his neck. "But acid burns require reversing damage to tissue rather than just replacing it, which is harder."

"Don't push yourself over your limit." Cuvie snapped.

"I won't." Bones said with a reassuring voice. "You don't have to worry about me that much."

Cuvie looked away, so Diabel stepped forward into the pause. "Thank you for your efforts." He praised. "But, if we compare your endurance to the HP bar of the Boss, do you still have two-thirds of your effort left?"

Bones smiled tightly. "I'll manage."

"We'll do better, so it's not a problem." The player he had been healing took a shaky breath, and then breathed out, calming himself. He raised his eyes, meeting Diabel's gaze squarely. "We'll try even harder, so we won't let you down, Diabel-sama."

Diabel met that expression with his own serious visage, and then nodded with a soft smile. "Then I'll rely on you. Not just to do your best, but not to overexert yourselves. Alright?"

The whole party nodded together, not just the previously injured player. "We'll definitely succeed." His words were like a direct promise to Diabel.

"I believe in you." Diabel replied sincerely.

A flicker of movement caught his eye, so he raised his hand to open the PM, and he read it.

"Cuvie, Bones, Kibaou." He announced. "It's time to move to the next group."

"Right!" They chorused, although Kibaou was so much louder he almost drowned the other two out.

Diabel turned with a crisp and snappy motion, confident without even looking that they would follow him without hesitation.

I I I

The sword slashed diagonally and ripped through the Boss, and he slammed with his shield so fiercely its sinuous flesh was forced back with a ripple, and his third strike was a thrust with a vicious snap-and-twist on the end of the blow, before stepping back, cape swirling around his armor. "Switch!" Shivata shouted.

"On it." Lind smoothly stepped forward, armor clanking as she raised her two-handed axe in both hands. It was a player-made item especially commissioned to match her requirements. The haft was so long it nearly counted as a polearm and rather than a double-blade like most axe-users favored, it had only one heavy blade.

Lind stepped forward and dropped into a stance as she raised her axe, and with a careful twirl, started up the two-hit combo [Spin Chop].

Her guild the [Divine Dragon Alliance] focused on heavy equipment and large weapons. Therefore, it was obvious they would focus on strength magic and weight-reduction magic that would allow them to multiply the effect of their chosen builds.

She was a strength-type, and she had the [Reinforcement] that would allow her to even take her [Strength] above the limit of [5 times level]. That was the secret edge that the DDA had kept to themselves.

However, the other half of their goals, [weight-reduction magic], was theoretically a failure. The attempt to reduce the amount of gravity waves that touched the enchanted object had completely backfired. At this stage, the only thing they had developed was an enchantment to increase the weight of something by improving the pull of gravity, rather than reducing it. And even then, it required a constant feed of prana to maintain the change. It would end the instant the supply of prana ended.

But if it was a theoretical failure as [weight reduction], it was still useful in its own way.

Lind fed prana into the spinning axe.

The weight increased even as she gritted her teeth and sped up that whirling blade. Because it was magic, the rotational momentum increased by magic without any regard for conservation of energy. Even as she carefully maintained the flow of prana, she released the [Skill].

She stepped forward, gripping the axe firmly in both hands, swinging it around in front of her. At the instant it made contact, she pulsed the flow of prana to the maximum she could maintain, increasing the weight and power even more as it tore through the Boss. The axe came out and around as she stepped back, spinning it around smoothly to circle it up.

Her right hand gripped the haft as it came around above her head, and she dragged it down in front of her. When it bit in, she didn't worry about control or maintenance, and pulsed as much prana as she possibly could.

With a sharp cry that synchronized with the howl of the blade going through the air, her chopping blade completely smashed through the Boss without slowing down at all and smashed into the ground with a great crash. This was the magic that only the [Divine Dragon Alliance] had, the [Heavy Blow].

"Careful!" She cried. She couldn't do anything more while she was locked in place during the cooldown.

Shivata threw his shield up, covering his upper body and face. The mouth of the Boss slammed into him, forcing him back with a slam attack. But his center of gravity lowered and he inched to a halt, as he increased the weight of his gear to improve his ability to resist the pressure.

His HP bar ticked down as acrid drool leaked down from that pulsing mouth, hissing as it dripped onto his body and shoulders while the Boss sinuously shook back and forth, trying to force him off his feet.

"Got it." Yamata crisply called, stepping forward to swing his two-handed curved sword. He slashed with a two-hit combo, dealing more knockback than was possible with even a two-handed sword, setting up an opening for Lind to follow through with. The Boss screeched, arching back when their attacks pounded it in rapid succession. When she stepped back, he retreated in a perpendicular direction as they spread away to make room for their guildmates. "Switch." Yamata announced.

"Good job." She praised. It was her duty as the [Guild Leader] to maintain morale, but even so, she was sincerely proud of them. "Everyone keep this up!" She shouted. "If we can stay like this, we'll prove we're the [Strongest Guild] right now!"

A cheer rose up, a fierce cry as her guildmates responded to her encouragement.

"I've got him!" Shivata roared as he charged forward, putting his weight behind a super-heavy shield charge, and following with a close-range double-hit stabbing combo before switching.

Lind smiled ferociously, raising her axe as she stepped forward once more.

I I I

"Hoh." Ilya mused, tapping her lip with her finger. "Lind-kun is doing a surprisingly competent job, don't you think so Kirito-kun?"

"Hmm." Kirito agreed, rubbing his chin. "They've got solid teamwork and whatever enhancement magic they have is pretty effective. Surprisingly competent indeed, Ilya-chan." He nodded with a serious expression as he agreed with her.

It was at times like this that Ilya could perhaps see what Asuna and Shirou saw in him.

"If you two are done," Asuna said, with that frosty tone she adopted whenever she acted like she was being more patient than they deserved, "we should be focusing on remaining prepared for whatever's going to happen."

"Oh?" Ilya tilted her head. "If it's remaining vigilant, then I can just rely on Shirou to protect me."

Kirito also glanced at her oniichan, but he sighed with a troubled look. "Shirou, if you don't calm down then you're going to end up making SAN checks."

He glanced over at them, and let his breath out with a heavy sigh. "Right. Getting too tense before battle is a mistake." He shook his head. "It just grates on me to be standing here watching while others fight."

"I can understand." Asuna spoke up, which surprised Ilya slightly, so she turned to look. The other girl had spoken softly, and her expression was troubled in equal proportion to her tone of voice.

"When you could be doing something, then not doing it is hard." Asuna continued, but then she sighed too. "But we also have to remember we have a place in the plan, so we can't let our selfishness overcome our teamwork."

"Hmm." Kirito said, with a voice that sounded as suspicious as Ilya felt. "You say that, but I know you were thinking of stealing a march on Diabel and fighting the boss with just our guild."

"Ho ho." Ilya said, before Asuna could voice a denial. "I didn't know Asuna-chan had such an ambitious heart, but I don't hate girls like that. If you want, we can definitely show him up against the next boss and leave him eating our dust." Ilya smiled warmly as she imagined such a lovely image.

"That might be a little much." Kirito muttered, with a strangely regretful tone.

"It's going under." Shirou announced.

Indeed, the Boss had retreated underground.

They were quiet, each scanning the horizon. A tense feeling fell over the whole room. The sounds of combat and the alien screams of the boss were gone, so it was a heavy pall that crushed everyone present with expectation, as people quietly regrouped their parties and continuosly scanned the horizon.

"There." Shirou announced, a half beat ahead of everyone else. "At B-5."

The boss erupted from the floor.

"Oy." Kirito said, with a worried tone. "They were the group right before Lind, they're still getting healed."

"Should we move?" Asuna voiced the question on everyone's mind.

Shirou raised his hand, and Ilya could tell he wanted to step forward. But he shook his head and lowered his hand. "No. You were right, we should stick to the plan. We'll rely on them to handle it." But the tension didn't leave his body. "For now, at least."

"Don't worry." Ilya said, smiling. "I'll support you from behind, so you can just charge off like an idiot whenever you want."

Kirito muttered something unpleasant, but Ilya firmly ignored him, choosing to bask in the thankful look Shirou had given her. There was nothing better than his acknowledgement, after all.

I I I

"Haaa!" Cuvie roared, spinning his spear around, slashing across the Boss. A trail of ice hung in the air, tracing the line his spearhead made while the spell was active. He stepped back, the blade of ice buried in the side of the Boss, and used a triple-thrust skill, thrusting icicles like driven piles into the side of the Boss. Behind him, Bones retreated, dragging a Player in the Red Zone that had gotten sprayed with an acid attack. "Switch!" He shouted.

"Right!" Diabel-sama called, stepping forward to slash with his blade, then slamming the Boss back with his shield and driving his sword in for a finishing thrust, before finally retreating. "Switch!" He called.

"On it!" Kibaou roared. His body was taut like he was winding his muscles up like a spring, before he launched himself into a whirling four-hit combo. The Runes he had carved into the side of his blade burned balefully as he hacked at the enemy. "Switch!" He shouted.

"It's going under!" Cuvie snarled, leaping forward while spinning his spear around on a converging point, creating a drill-like thread of ice that plunged into the side of the Boss when he finished with a stab, before he stepped back and threw his off-hand around in a big circle, driving the spire of ice deeper into the Boss.

"Damn." He muttered, wiping his face. "Is it just me or is it going for the weaker Parties instead of the strong ones?"

"Tch." Kibaou clicked his teeth as he scanned the floor. "I think you're on to something there, kiddo."

Diabel had stepped back, holding his sword blade-down by the pommel in his shield hand as he navigated menus, eyes darting back and forth as he traded PMs with Party Leaders. "As near as I can tell it was popping out randomly, but it seems to have changed patterns now that it's on the last HP bar." He grimly announced. "I'm thinking I might order all parties below half HP on average to retreat."

"That'll cut our DPS." Kibaou warned with a grimace.

"Yes." Diabel agreed with a sigh. "But what we lose from DPS is less than we'll gain from reducing the tanking load." He shook his head. "Besides, it's better to do this now than before the damage output increases too much from the Last Red function."

"Hmm." Kibaou grunted, rubbing his head. "I don't like it, but I can understand it, so I don't have any more objections."

"Treatment complete." Bones announced as he walked back.

"You're gripping your staff pretty tight." Cuvie said, gesturing towards his party member's hand. "You don't have too much of those left in you, do you?"

Bones smiled without any humor. "Yes, the constant wear from the acid is surprisingly difficult to handle. Already I'm at the point where I would be taking damage myself if I'm not careful with my spells."

Kibaou and Diabel exchanged a look, the way adults did when they wanted to talk about something but not in front of him. Cuvie hated that look, especially since he could pretty much imagine everything they had to say.

"I'm doing it." Diabel briskly announced.

I I I

[PM  
From: Diabel  
To: All  
Everyone, those who are at half HP or less, please retreat from battle.  
This is in anticipation of higher Boss DPS during last red.]

"Huh, looks like we're moving into the endgame already." Kirito said, even as he read the same message that Asuna had floating in front of her, as well.

"Let's go." Shirou said.

"Oh, you want to retreat as well, Shirou?" Ilya said, with genuine surprise in her voice.

"Not quite." Shirou replied, shaking his head. "But we should cover the retreating Players as a rear guard action, in case of trouble."

"That's a good idea." Asuna agreed, readying her sword. "So let's go."

Behind them, the Boss screamed as it sprayed acid against the parties it was fighting.

I I I

Diabel squinted, as he watched Parties retreating from the field to the corridor. As expected, it was about every third Party or so; his estimation of the different strengths had apparently been accurate, so the weaker parties that had been interspersed among the stronger were retreating about as he had imagined.

"Hey." Kibaou said beside him. "Why the hell is Ilya's group retreating?"

Diabel blinked, glancing over. Indeed, Ilya's party was on the retreat, even though he knew that keeping their HP bars topped had been easy for Ilya's healing spells.

"Look at how they're looking around." Cuvie pointed out. "They're not really moving fast, either."

"Covering the retreat." Diabel said, as he realized what was going on.

"The boss went under." Kibaou suddenly announced. Indeed, the enemy had gone under the field, using its burrowing command.

Diabel started jogging forward. He didn't have to tell his Party to do anything; they naturally fell in step behind him.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Kibaou muttered.

"Don't say it!" Cuvie hissed with an exasperated tone of voice.

Privately, Diabel agreed, suppressing a shudder.

Of course it had to be a big bug.

I I I

Players charged on the retreat. Shirou's eyes darted back and forth, keeping track of them. It was worrying how many had HP bars that were still in the Yellow zone. They should have already healed if they were like that.

But there was a greater worry. The Boss had gone under. There was no way to tell where it would appear.

But it was obvious, what the worst case would be. That the boss would erupt from the ground amidst the retreating players, right in front of the door. There was no specific reason to think it would do so. But that was obviously the worst case.

Even as he jogged along, he opened his menu. He navigated the menu, and removed the [One Handed Curved Sword] from his active equipment, and replaced it with the [One Handed Straight Sword].

Even as he equipped the sword, he loaded the sword in his imagination, and pulled the trigger. Warmth soaked outward from his spine along his limbs to the tips of his fingers and toes, as his nerves heightened. Colors sharpened, images cleared, and sounds became more distinct as the skills of the King of Knights were replicated within him.

His mind was clear. There were no doubts or concerns. All he had to do was sharpen himself.

In that mental stillness, the Heroic Instinct spoke, and he instantly responded.

I I I

It happened so quickly Kirito couldn't even blink. One minute Shirou was jogging along beside them as they mingled with the rest of the retreating players, casually changing sword equips from the curved sword to the straight sword.

Then he launched. It was like that time against Illfang. Shirou poured blazing prana out of himself like igniting rocket fuel, and he burst forward, darting between the retreating players as he overtook them towards the door.

"What gives?" Kirito shouted, checking his own sword equip.

With a screech, the Boss erupted from the floor, thrusting the gash-like mouth out of the ground in-between the retreating players and the exit. Everyone halted, faltering in place seeing that the Boss had appeared to rout them.

Everyone, except Shirou.

At the same instant the Boss erupted from the floor, he took his last step and leapt into the air.

Once, twice, three times, his sword was a smooth flash of golden light, as it exploded against the upper length of the Boss.

He landed, and without pausing, launched himself forward, smashing into the Boss, forcibly pushing it away.

"Everyone keep going!" Ilya shouted from behind him. "Hurry, while Shirou can still keep this up!"

That made Kirito nervous for entirely a different reason, even as he ran forward to support his friend.

But even as he ran forward, there was a sensation like he was standing on the beach facing the ocean as the tide went out. It was like he was getting sucked forward towards the Boss, as the air pricked around him.

"It's sucking up prana!" Kirito screamed. "Everyone get ready, it's going to use something big!"

Sparks gathered around the Boss, flickers of light in a glowing corona about it.

"It really does have lightning." Asuna said with a mournful and annoyed voice.

"Tch." Of course it was Ilya that simply complained with an annoyed sound as she swung her sword forward into a guard position.

Everyone's sprinting redoubled, as they tried to clear to the exit before it could use its attack. Or, in the case of Kirito and his remaining two party members, as they tried to catch up with Shirou.

The lightning gathered, up to a point, and there was a sound like a triumphant bellow from [The Olgoi Khorkhoi] as the ozone-like charge built up at its mouth. Its upturned head lolled down, and the lightning burst out.

There was a golden flash, and Shirou hung in the air, red cape stretched behind him, as he leapt up.

The thunder came, and poured down from the beast's mouth.

And the golden flash shined brighter. Shirou swung his sword. With a crash of thunder and steel, the bolt of lightning was parried, knocked aside to scorch the sand by the intercepting sword.

"No way." Kirito said, breathing out in amazement.

Shirou landed in a crouch, and then abruptly darted back several meters.

He flung his sword aside, and Kirito's bewilderment that he'd do such a thing was answered in the same instant the question formed in his mind.

The sword was broken, less than a third of the blade remained sticking up from the crossguard. The discarded and broken sword landed on the sand and wheeled twice before it came to a rest, and then shattered into pixels.

Shirou calmly equipped his other sword. But, that just meant he could only do that trick one more time.

The boss started gathering prana again, like the tide going out.

Kirito didn't stop running. He had a good idea. He channeled prana into his sword, and changed it. No longer did it have the properties of steel, to act as a barrier for prana. Now, it was a conduit, that could siphon the flow.

The flow stopped, and the lightning gathered.

Asuna jumped, her sword ablaze, and then slammed it into the boss. With a mighty gust, she was thrown back riding a swirl of fire. "Switch!" She shouted.

"On it!" Ilya called back, swinging her sword diagonally down and then horizontally across in a two-hit combo, before stepping back with a twirl. "Switch!" She shouted, her eye meeting Kirito's with an exchange of nods.

The lightning charged, and Kirito swung his sword, a three-hit combo, that cut prana as well as muscle. But the disruption was too small.

Lightning poured out, and once again Shirou rose like a rocket to meet it mid-air. He reliably repeated that same impossible deed, and once more, he sacrificed his sword and discarded the broken remains when he landed.

Shirou calmly entered a martial arts stance, fingers locked straight into the chopping motions he preferred.

"You've gotta be kidding." Kirito moaned at his friend, standing tall a few meters away. Shirou didn't move or acknowledge him at all, but Kirito was powerfully certain that inside his friend's mind, Shirou had shrugged, and said, "it can't be helped."

If only there was a stronger, more powerful way to disrupt the Boss' gathering prana.

His eyes darted back and forth, and landed on Asuna. And her Rapier.

"Asuna," He shouted, "I have an idea."

I I I

Diabel charged, shield before him. It could be chain lightning, or it could just be an area effect. But no matter what, he had a duty to protect everyone. So he raised his shield and charged forward.

Kibaou and Cuvie sprinted beside him, supporting him from the sides.

"Shirou-san!" Diabel shouted. He came to a halt five meters to the left of Shirou.

The helmet turned slightly. Not so much that the [Horned King] took his eyes off the Boss, but enough that his ear was pointed towards Diabel.

"Let's switch." Diabel said, raising his shield as his gaze went up to the Boss, as he re-wrapped his fingers around his [Anneal Blade]. "I'll block the attack this time."

There was a slight pause. "Can you handle it?" There was no expectation in that question, like Shirou was completely unconcerned either way.

Diabel smiled with perfect confidence, even though that wasn't how he felt. "Well, we anticipated it would be like this, so I've prepared my defenses against lightning as well as acid and poison. I might not be able to negate an attack, but I should at least be able to disperse it into the ground."

"Hmm." Shirou simply made a non-committal noise.

Diabel glanced to his side. He wasn't confident that Kibaou and Cuvie would be able to withstand or block the lightning, and in the first place, it was just a holding action to cover the retreating players.

However, behind them, Asuna and Kirito were preparing something.

"Cuvie! Kibaou!" It wouldn't do to get too distracted. "Screen the retreating players against physical attacks!"

"Right!" Cuvie shouted with a curt nod.

However, Kibaou had a mulish look on his face. "I'm not going to just leave you behind, Diabel-san. I'm going to stand with you."

"Kibaou." Diabel said with a gentle voice. "Trust me, and then do as I say."

There was a pause as Kibou pursed his lips and tightened the grip on his sword, before he sighed. "Yeah, alright. I'll screen the retreat." With a nod, he turned to do so. But after three steps, he paused and spoke without looking back. "Leader. Protect yourself too, alright?"

Diabel smiled grimly as his attention switched from Kibaou's departing back to the Boss, which had started gathering prana in the time they had been talking.

Diabel raised his shield and sword. The rights of a [Hero] could only be earned this way, after all.

Still.

"Why bugs." With a soft voice, he complained to himself over the one thing that bothered him most.

I I I

Kirito had her rapier clenched in his hand, and he was doing something to it. Something that was like the [Flaming Sword] enhancement but was not the same thing. When it moved, it left something like a blurry afterimage. It wasn't anything like the haze from the heat, but rather, like it was refracting through an unknown medium.

"Ok." He said, releasing the blade. "It's ready."

She nodded, sliding into the stance, raising the blade and gathering the Wind Element into the sword, preparing herself. Kirito shuffled back, getting closer to Ilya, who had already retreated several meters from the Boss.

She could feel a gentle tug on the inside of her sternum, as the boss sucked in prana. At the same time she felt the tug lessen, Diabel stepped forward with his shield raised, and Kirito shouted "now!"

She jumped. Not for height like Shirou had those times, but straight forward, like a stone skipping across the surface of a pond rather than across the sand of the floor.

She drove her rapier into the Boss and detonated the spell.

This time, the howling wind that pushed her back was something that she didn't just hear, but an ominous cry that she felt in her Circuits.

And the lightning didn't come. The Boss rocked back, screaming.

"Looks like it also takes damage from Spell Failure." Kirito said with a soft voice full of malicious satisfaction.

"Kirito." Asuna ordered. "Less talking and more spellwork." She said, holding the blade of her sword out to him.

"Yes, yes, Asuna-chan." He agreed with a jovial voice, reaching out to grasp the base of her rapier's blade.

I I I

The Boss howled at an impossibly high pitch that made Diabel wince. Even so, he liked to imagine it was something like aggravation he heard in that scream. He still kept his shield at the ready, even as he slowly stalked forward, placing himself between the Boss and the remaining players.

Prana gathered, and the charge built up.

"Oh ho." Ilya mused, from somewhere behind him. "Just one more, and she'll have it."

And once again, Asuna jumped forward, stabbing the Boss with a spell that wasn't entirely physical, that erupted inside it, more deeply than just inside its innermost guts.

Prana gathered.

Lightning built.

And the piercing sword howled, and burst within the Boss.

The last fragment of HP emptied out of the bar, and the boss exploded into pixels.

A huge holographic banner appeared, and a fanfare of trumpets blared.

[Congratulations!]

And, cheering erupted.

Asuna blinked, flinching at the sound, and stumbling back as she was swamped by players rushing forward to swamp her with comradely hugs, before she bobbed up like a cork in the ocean as she was lifted onto someone's shoulders.

Diabel smiled.

[The Olgoi Khorkoi] had been defeated without casualties.


	33. 7:5 LD 2

It was little more than a closet with a cot in it. There was a window that opened onto the courtyard of the central building, but this was about the level that was expected from a basic room in an Inn. He ignored the cot and the window. The most important thing was that as long as he had the door closed and set to [Locked] he wouldn't be interrupted. He had no idea what the penalty for failure would be, so he simply needed to perform the [Spell] perfectly without any flaws.

He sat down cross-legged on the simulated floor of sanded planks. He crossed his legs tightly and settled his hands in his lap, centering them one palm in the other.

Just like this, how many hundreds, how many thousands of times had he done this?

He closed his eyes, and controlled his breathing. He became aware of his heartbeat, and felt the heat of his body as it washed into his veins. Those sensations were all illusions because his holographic body had none of those things, but even so, he felt all of it.

He condensed an image. It was like a bar of iron. Even though it cooled from molten liquid as he solidified the image in his mind, it was still a white-hot bar of iron.

And he inserted that blazing rod into his spine. From the base of his skull, he dragged it down, he pushed it along his back, burning up as he synchronized. It had been months since the last attempt, but this was not something that Emiya Shirou could ever forget. Even if it was something he had left behind this was what he had unfailingly forged every night without any expectation of success.

He poured the hot image down his spine, and changed the reality into the image. His spine was fuel that produced a Magic Circuit when burned by that fire, that was burned up and replaced by the Circuit.

And outside Emiya Shirou, the [Cardinal System] interpreted that intent. All attempts to create magecraft were assessed and appropriately simulated.

However, it only assessed the magecraft, it didn't do something like pass judgement on whether it was safe, or a good idea. Therefore, when Emiya Shirou replaced his spine with a Magic Circuit, the [Cardinal System] simply responded appropriately.

I I I

In that silent hospital room, caressed by a soft breeze while a plush figure of a lion stood sentinel next to his pillow, the constant beeping of the heart rate monitor ceased, and entered a constant alarm mode, as the [Cardinal System] properly responded to someone turning off their spine to create a Circuit.

Like that, Emiya Shirou quietly died from cardiac arrest.

(DEAD END)

(click)

LION DOJO

Take the—(click)

I I I

Standing with arms calmly folded on the hilt of the shinai resting before her, Saber's shoulders sagged beneath her formal gi as she sighed, shaking her head in disappointment, before she raised her head and opened her eyes to solemnly gaze forward.

"Shirou." She spoke with quiet dignity. "I can understand the desire to help your friend, but if you go too far and hurt yourself in the process, then you won't be able to help anyone." She nodded. "Do you understand?"

Emiya Shirou sighed, disappointed with himself, as well. "Yes, I know. It was a beginner's mistake, since I haven't practiced that spell since Rin showed me a better way."

"Shirou." Saber sternly replied. "Making excuses is unsightly for someone I've acknowledged as much as you."

"Guh." Shirou winced, before he nodded. "That's right, I can't complain. Don't worry, I'll act properly from now on, so there's no need to worry."

"I'm pleased." Saber said with a soft smile.

But, their soft and wonderful moment was interrupted by the yowling of a wild tiger.

"Wait just a minute!" Fujimura Taiga, of class 1-A according to her gym uniform, entered the scene with a dynamic roar as she pounced.

Even as her heel connected with Shirou's head, she landed nimbly, turning to point at Saber. "Shouldn't you at least scold him for talking so obviously about magecraft!? The only way he could have been less subtle was if he directly turned to those two kids and said, hey kids, magic is real, and I know magic IRL!" she finished her statement with a terrible imitation of Shirou's voice.

"I don't understand." Saber said, shaking her head. "Isn't it normal for magi to live openly?"

Taiga froze, staring at the master of the Lion Dojo, as she thought: that's right, Saber's someone from that kind of era originally, huh?

"Besides," Saber added quietly, "if Shirou has reached a decision about that, then I won't criticize that. I will always support whatever strategy he decides on."

Shirou grimaced, holding his jaw as he stood up. "Well, maybe something like that." He grunted. "After all, I pretty much told Ilya which side I would pick if I was forced to pick sides, you know?"

"What!" With a fierce roar, the tiger objected. "Are you saying you're going to support Kayaba's crazy scheme!? It hasn't even been revealed in the story yet, what if it's something super-horrible!?"

After narrowly skirting spoilers that even a tiger wouldn't get away with revealing, Shirou simply shook his head and went tsk tsk tsk. "That's not it at all." He said. "I'm on the side of justice! Rather than picking sides in a fight, I'm on the side of protecting the most lives!" He announced his resolve and clenched his fist in front of himself. "That's what it means to be an ally of justice!"

"Don't say such a childish thing in a superior tone!" Compared to his burning gaze, the eye of the tiger was more fierce, or rather, more indiscriminate, as she tensed up to once again pounce with her claws fully extended.

"Taiga."

However, before she could follow words with deeds, even a Tiger had to bow to the one recognized as "King" among all species of cats.

"Taiga." Saber said, with a cool and stern expression. "I won't allow anyone to criticize Shirou's coolest points."

Taiga just stared at the golden presence that usurped her, and especially, at the delicate blush that disturbed an otherwise perfectly calm expression. Then she turned to look at the teenager that had solemnly sworn to act as an ally of justice. "You think that's cool?" Taiga asked, with an incredulous tone of voice.

"Oh." Saber said, as she slowly shifted her grip on the shinai.

An overwhelming presence built up.

"Perhaps if I give you some lessons, I can also make you as cool as Shirou that way. Taiga." Even though her voice and demeanor was completely calm, that just made it even more ominous.

"Gack." Taiga took a shaky step back.

"Saber." Shirou said, eyes closed. Hopeful, Taiga whipped her head around.

Shirou opened his eyes. "Taiga is as tough as a tiger, so do whatever you think is necessary."

"Understood! Shirou!" Saber roared, brandishing her shinai.

"Shirou you traitor!" Taiga yowled.

But before anyone could undergo character development (by force), the doors closed on the strange advice corner.


End file.
